Ederson's Errors Lifts Man United Past City on Derby Day

Manchester derbies always matter. It may be from Manchester City’s point of view that this defeat meant little other than hastening the moment at which Liverpool wins the title, but for Manchester United doing the league double over its closest rivals will have been sweet and will strengthen the sense that something, at last, is stirring at Old Trafford.

A 2–0 win, achieved through Anthony Martial’s goal on the half hour and Scott McTominay’s remarkable second in injury-time, gives United local honors, means that the gap between City and Liverpool is 25 points—if City loses its next two games, against Arsenal and Burnley, Liverpool will win the title before it even plays again—and, perhaps most significantly, elevates United to fifth, to within three points of Chelsea in fourth.

There must be concern too for City after a run of five straight wins, that it should have been sucker-punched yet again by United, that for all its possession—73%—it created so few opportunities. Its quality, those precise moves that characterize City at its best, simply weren’t there. At the same time, it was remarkably susceptible to the pace of Daniel James and Martial, something that will surely have been noted by Real Madrid as it prepares for the second leg of its Champions League last-16 tie a week come Tuesday. It will not have come as a surprise to anybody, but Nicolas Otamendi really does not deal well with pace, and here he was inadequately protected by Oleksandr Zinchenko and Rodri. It will have been recognized as well that both United goals were the result of errors from Ederson.

The first half followed a strange pattern. United, as it had in its recent 2–0 win at Chelsea, began with a back three, and, as in its win at the Etihad in December, sat deep, happy to give City possession and then attack on the counter. For the first quarter of the game, City had 70% possession and, although it created only a couple of chances through Sergio Aguero, it seemed comfortably in control.

Then, abruptly, everything changed. There was a sudden United surge. For five minutes, the home side had almost 80% possession. Martial scuffed one good chance straight at Ederson, but then, on the half hour, United won a free-kick as Ilkay Gundogan challenged Bruno Fernandes from behind. Whether there was contact or not is debatable, but the referee Mike Dean was no more than five yards from the incident and City’s fury at his decision, which earned Fernandinho a yellow card, seemed excessive, perhaps indicating how rattled City’s players were by the sudden shift in intensity.

Whether it should have been a free-kick or not, though, City should have defended it better. Bruno Fernandes scooped the ball over the wall, catching Aguero dozing as Martial ran on and hit a volley through the dive of Ederson.

United might have had a penalty before half-time as well, as Fred appeared to be tripped by Nicolas Otamendi. Instead the Brazilian was booked for simulation, which seemed extremely harsh given one angle clearly showed him being kicked on the shin. What was certain was that Otamendi was desperately struggling to fill the channel between himself and the left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Solskjaer has been criticized over the past year for having no discernible model of play he is aiming for. The arrival of Fernandes has perhaps begun to make that a little clearer, but what has been true from the beginning is that United is better when it can counter-attack. The second half returned to the pattern of the first, City probing, United sitting deep, that trapezium of the three central defenders and the two holding midfielders in front of them frustrating their opponents.

Ederson almost gifted Martial a goal as he miscontrolled a back pass early in the half, but his miserable afternoon was capped in the final seconds as his throw out found only the substitute Scott McTominay, who knocked a cool first-time finish into an empty net from 35 yards.

In the long term, a reliance in the counter is insufficient, in part because, as Solskjaer acknowledged before the game, there are only certain matches in which United can play at Old Trafford as though the away team, and in part because mid-ranking sides and below will be more than happy if United sit deep against them.

But to trouble City, the ploy clearly works. That’s three wins out of four against City this season—albeit one of those was in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final when the game had effectively been lost in the first leg. Even more positively, that’s 10 games unbeaten now for United, the signing of Fernandes having given it an urgency and cutting edge in midfield that it had been lacking.