Manchester City bury United in 4-1 thrashing at the Etihad

Manchester City lined up with four changes from their 1-0 victory over Everton with injury problems causing their main centre back, Ruben Dias, to be out for up to six weeks with an injury he picked up in the FA Cup tie with Peterborough.

This meant that Kyle Walker came back into the side at right back with John Stones going back to his centre back role. Jack Grealish made his first premier league start in six weeks in his first ever Manchester derby.

Riyad Mahrez made a return to the starting XI, being City’s top scorer, his goalscoring prowess was needed in this game.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s big return to the Etihad was put on hold since he wasn’t included in the entire squad. Ragnick said he was out with a hip flexor injury.

However, Roy Keane seemed to disagree with that decision. Varane and Cavani were both out as well, meaning United lined up without a centre forward player meaning Bruno Fernandes had to fill that role.

At match kick-off, Manchester City took full control of the game, not letting Manchester United touch the ball.

Control

In just the fifth minute, Berndardo Silva and Jack Grealish had the ball on the left-wing, with Silva manageing to get to the byline and get the ball into the box where De Bruyne was waiting to place it into the left side of the net.

United then seemed to turn up the pace of the game getting two chances at the City goalkeeper.

However, Ederson managed to keep out Fred. In the 22^nd minute, City Academy player Jadon Sancho got in behind with only Walker to track him.

He cut inside and hit a brilliant shot into the bottom right corner of the net, hitting the post and then in the back of the net, making the game 1-1 at the 22^nd minute.

The match was shaping up to be a tough game for City. United are so good on the counter-attack they managed to slip through and grab a goal back.

This didn’t stop City’s attack, however, because only five minutes later – in the 28^th minute – Foden did a beautiful flick over Lindelof’s head and sent a shot at the goal which De Gea could only parry into the path of De Bruyne who scored his second goal of the game.

The game then went a bit quiet for the rest of the half with a few chances for United but nothing came out of them. The first half ended 2-1 to the Champions.

Defence

The second half started strong for City with chances from De Bruyne looking to bag his hat trick and Foden slipping through the defence a few times, but only managing to put the ball wide of the net and straight into the hands of the United keeper.

United made two changes in the 64^th minute, with Elanga and Pogba coming off for Rashford and Lingard.

Only a few minutes after the substitutes came on, City won a corner and De Bruyne spotted Mahrez waiting on the edge of the box and sent the ball towards him.

With his first touch, he sent the ball rifling into the bottom left corner of the net past a sea of blue and red. Definitely one they practiced as a set piece.

Kevin De Bruyne then left the field to a roar of applause from the fans in the 80^th minute for his performance on the day. Ilkay Gundogan replaced him.

As the game was closing, Mahrez got the ball behind the back line from a pass from the substitute and smashed it past De Gea, hitting his shoulder on the way and past and deflecting it into the top right corner. However, the offside flag was raised for the City top goal scorer.

After a VAR review though, the goal with given to Mahrez as Alex Telles was playing him onside with his foot.

That ended the game 4-1 to the home side, leaving them 6-1 up in total this season against their rivals.

Kevin De Bruyne received man of the match for his two goals and one assist against the red devils.