Manchester Derby: Man United v Man City

If you look at a city like London, there are so many football clubs down there that the idea of a derby almost becomes meaningless. Sure, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur supporters hate one another and desperate want to win the North London Derby, but outside of that the majority of games that take place between the sides don’t really mean an awful lot. The same cannot be said about the Manchester Derby, which pits two clubs from the same city up against one another in a match that very much means something to all concerned. This is the battle for bragging rights in Manchester and that is most definitely a thing.

Bearing a much closer relationship to the Merseyside Derby, which is ironic considering how much Manchester United and Liverpool fans dislike one another, the Manchester Derby is one of the games that even football fans with no metaphorical skin in the game are liable to tune in and watch. For a time, the Red Devils were easily the more dominant force, referencing the other lot as being the ‘noisy neighbours’. Then the arrival of Sheikh Mansour as the new Manchester City owner saw the balance of power shift in the Cityzens’ favour. The match will always be one that supporters on both sides of the divide look out for whether the fixtures drop.

A History of the Derby

It is worth having a look at what has happened between the two clubs, both historically and in more recent times, to get a sense of why it is that the Manchester Derby is considered to be one the most fiery in the English game.

The Origins of the Enmity

If you want to know more about the history of the rivalry between Manchester United and Manchester City, you have to travel back to the 12th of November 1881. That was when St. Mark’s (West Gorton) hosted the team representing Newton Heath LYR. St. Mark’s, of course, became Manchester City, with Newton Heath eventually turning into Manchester United. It was Newton Heath that ran out 3-0 winners of that first ever encounter, setting something of a precedent that would be followed for the majority of the two sides’ existence. By the 1890s St. Mark’s had become Ardwick, but the sides were quickly become the city’s most dominant.

Between 1888 and 1893 one or the other would win the Manchester Cup each year, with no other sides in the area given a look-in. They both joined the Football Alliance when it was formed as a rival to the Football League, simultaneously trying to get into the latter. In 1892, Newton Heath ended up being elected to the First Division and Ardwick moved into the Second Division. It took until the 1894-1895 campaign for the two teams to meet one another in the Football league, with Newton Heath winning 5-2 against the side that had become known as Manchester City. The first top-flight battle wasn’t until the December of 1906.

Growing in Stature

In the early part of the 1900s, Manchester City were found guilty of making off-the-books payments to players, with the club suffering the after-effects in the years that followed. Having won the FA Cup in 1904, they then saw that team torn apart, including the departure of some players to Manchester United. Back then, such transfers weren’t viewed with the same level of anger that they might be nowadays, with the feeling being that a fellow Manchester club was being assisted by the move. It was common for supporters to go along and watch City one week and then United the next, but that began to change in the post-war years.

As the decades past, the rivalry between the two sides grew and grew. Manchester United won their first top-flight title in at the end of the 1907-1908 season, which was nearly 30 years before City managed it. In fact, by the time that the Cityzens added a title to the trophy cabinet in 1937, United had already won it twice and would win it five more times before City would double their tally. This success certainly helped the enmity to grow between the two teams, with Manchester United even managing to overshadow Manchester City’s 1967-1968 title win by winning that season’s European Cup.

The Denis Law Derby

The 1973-1974 season is one that will live long in the memories of both sets of supporters. Ion the first game, which was played at Maine Road, the referee sent off Mike Doyle for City and Lou Macari for United, eventually having to take both teams off the pitch because the players refused to accept their red cards. It was a boring 0-0, but would have a profound impact at the end of the season. The Old Trafford game was the penultimate one of the season, with the home side desperate to avoid relegation out of the top-flight. The scores were level in the 80th minute when Francis Lee played the ball through to Denis Law.

Law was a former United player, but he didn’t hesitate to back-heel the ball past Alex Stepney in the Manchester United goal. As the game crept towards its conclusion, United fans invaded the pitch in the hope of forcing an abandonment. They succeeded, but the result still stood and City’s 1-0 win alongside results elsewhere meant that the Red Devils were relegated. It was one of the final things that Law did on a football pitch, retiring at the end of the season. In the end, United returned a year later and the two sides enjoyed some cup success towards the end of the decade, thanks to City’s League Cup win and United’s FA Cup victory.

United Become the Dominant Force

The 1980s began with the two sides considering themselves to be reasonably evenly matched, but when Manchester United won the FA Cup whilst finishing third in the First Division at the end of the 1982-1983 campaign, with City being relegated, that thought process was quickly abandoned. In some ways, that summed up the decade for both teams, with City yo-yoing between the First and Second Division whilst United often challenged for the title. Perhaps the most important moment came in 1986 when the Red Devils decided to sack Ron Atkinson as manager and bring in a Scot by the name of Alex Ferguson to replace him.

Man City defeated Manchester United 5-1 in the derby at Maine Road on the 23rd of September 1989 in the Cityzens’ first season back in the top-flight. If that was considered to be a sign of things to come by supporters then they would end up severely disappointed, given the fact that they wouldn’t win another derby for 13 years. That included the 1990s, during which time Manchester United went unbeaten for the entire decade. Few people realised how influential the invention of the Premier League would be for the Red Devils, who would go on to dominate British football for the first 20 or so years of the new competition.

Keane v Haaland

Manchester United’s dominance over Manchester City whenever the sides faced one another in the 1990s meant that a firm degree of dislike grew between the two teams. A long-standing feud developed involving Roy Keane and Alfie Haaland, beginning in 1997. That was when Keane suffered a cruciate ligament injury after committing a foul on Haaland when he was playing for Leeds United. The Leeds player stood over the United man and accused him of faking his injury, which rankled the Northern Irishman. Keane was not someone who would forget such an incident, which was proven in the April of 2001.

The two sides went up against one another in the April of 2001, with Keane seeing his opportunity for revenge. He went in knee-high on Haaland, who was playing for Man City by this point, receiving a red card in the process. In 2002 Keane published an autobiography in which he confessed that the challenge was a premeditated one, intending to cause him injury. As a result, Keane was fined £150,000 and given a five-match ban. Whilst the injury nearly ended Haland’s career, it had little impact on the match which ended up finishing 1-1. United had already won the league, but City moved closer to their eventual relegation.

City Wrestle Back Control

In the November of 2002, a Kevin Keegan-managed Manchester City won the final derby played at Maine Road thanks to two goals from Shaun Goater and one from Nicolas Anelka. It meant that the Cityzens had won a derby for the first time in 13 years. When they won both of the Manchester Derbies in the 2007-2008 season it was the first time that they had done the double over their city rivals since the 1969-1970 campaign. The following season, however, it was business as usual as far as the Red Devils were concerned, winning the first match 1-0 and the second 2-0 with goals from Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.

Tevez became something of a signpost for the changing of the guard of the two clubs. Manchester City were taken over by Sheikh Mansour and the Abu Dhabi Group in 2008, with the Cityzens persuading Tevez to run down his contract and them move to them, which he duly did in the summer of 2009. City celebrated that fact by putting a poster up of their new signing at the top of Deansgate emblazoned with the words ‘Welcome to Manchester’. Alex Ferguson responded by saying that Man City were a ‘small club with a small mentality’, going on to call them the ‘noisy neighbours’ later on in the Premier League campaign.

The Sheikh Mansour Era

There were some tense games between Manchester City and Manchester United during the 2009-2010 season, including a match at Old Trafford in which United led three times, were pegged back all three times and then won 4-3 in the 95th minute of the game. They also ended up facing one another in the League Cup semi-finals, the first-leg of which involved Carlos Tevez scoring twice to overturn a goal from Ryan Giggs. Tevez scored again in the second-leg after United had taken a 2-0 lead, with the match looking like it was going to go to extra-time before Wayne Rooney scored a header to send them to the final.

The 2011-2012 season was to be the one that truly announced the arrival of the Sheikh Mansour era at Manchester City. The first Manchester Derby took place at Old Trafford on the 23rd of October 2011, with City running out 6-1 winners. It was the biggest defeat that United had suffered against their rivals at home since they lost 5-0 in 1955. Comer the end f the season, it would prove to be influential, with City and United ending the season on the same number of points but the title heading to the City of Manchester Stadium on account of the fact that the Cityzens had a better goal difference than their Manchester counterparts.

That was one of the most thrilling ends to the season that the Premier League had ever seen, with United actually thinking that they had won the title when the final whistle went in their game. That was on account of the fact that the Red Devils had defeated Sunderland 1-0 whilst City were drawing with Queens Park Rangers. That game had seen QPR reduced to ten men when Joey Barton elbowed Carlos Tevez, then kicked Sergio Agüero on his way off the pitch before attempting to headbutt Vincent Kompany. The score was 2-1 to QPR as the game entered stoppage time, only for two goals in quick succession to hand them the win and their first Premier League title.

The End of Alex Ferguson

The 2012-2013 season would prove to be Alex Ferguson’s last in charge of Manchester United. In spite of the fact that he had threatened to retire numerous times before, he genuinely did end his time in charge at Old Trafford when the campaign reached its conclusion. He threw everything he had at winning one last title, signing Robin van Persie from Arsenal, with the Dutchman scoring the winning goal in the first Manchester Derby of the season. During the celebrations, City fans threw coins at the United players and one of them hit Rio Ferdinand, causing him damage just above his left eye prior to being confronted by a fan who invaded the pitch.

Ferguson was replaced as Manchester United manager by David Moyes, a fellow Scot who was essentially hand-picked by the departing boss. In the eyes of some, this selection along with the state that the famous manager left the club in was a deliberate attempt to protect his own legacy. Having won the first derby at the City Ground 4-1, the Cityzens did the double over their rivals thanks to a third consecutive win at Old Trafford on the 25th of March 2014. When Man United won the derby at the City of Manchester Stadium towards the end of the 2015-2016 season, they didn’t realise a new era was about to begin for their rivals.

The Arrival of Pep Guardiola

Ahead of the 2016-2017 season Manchester United made the decision to appoint José Mourinho as manager. Elsewhere in the city, Pep Guardiola arrived as the new boss of their rivals. The Cityzens won 2-1 at Old Trafford in the Premier League but lost 1-0 in the League Cup, with United going on to win the competition that season. The game at the City of Manchester Stadium ended 0-0, in spite of the fact that Marouane Fellaini was sent off for a headbutt on Sergio Agüero. The following season, City won by the same scoreline and Old Trafford and had the chance to win the league against them at home, but threw away a 2-0 lead.

Sadly from United’s point of view, City’s dominance under Guardiola was only just beginning. Although the Spanish club was hit with 130 charges of financial impropriety by the Premier League, the club’s success showed no sign of abating. They became the first club to win four top-flight titles in a row, with the only reason they didn’t win seven in succession under the Spaniard being the fact that Liverpool won it in the 2019-2020 season; something that hardly went down well with Manchester United fans. The 2022-2023 league win was made all the sweeter thanks to a 6-3 win against United at home in the October.

FA Cup Wins for Both Teams

As the 2022-2023 season drew to a close, Manchester almost emptied out as supporters of both teams made the trip down to Wembley for the FA Cup final. It as the first time that a Manchester Derby had been played as a cup final, with Ilkay Gündoğan making history when he scored after just 12 seconds, which was the faster ever FA Cup final goal. The match had kicked-off at 3pm after police deemed it to be ‘high risk’, once again treating football fans with disdain. The game was refereed by Paul Tierney, who himself as from Greater Manchester. He awarded the Red Devils a penalty after 33 minutes, which Bruno Fernandes scored.

That was just a moment of enjoyment for United fans, however, with Gündoğan getting a second in the 51st minute. City held on to win 2-1. The Manchester clubs were back at Wembley 12 months later for a replay of the previous season’s FA Cup final. This time it was Manchester United’s turn to win 2-1, with first-half goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo enough to win it for them and the goal from Jeremy Doku towards the end of the game proving to be little more than a consolation for City. It was a win that kept Erik Ten Hag in his job, for a few months at least, with United’s league performance having disappointed.

The Supporters

If you spoke to the majority of Manchester United fans, they would unquestionably point to Liverpool as their main rival. The fact that the Red Devils and the Merseyside club have often battled over the title of the most successful English club has certainly contributed to that. Whilst Manchester City have also gone up against the Reds at times, particularly in the era of Jürgen Klopp at Anfield and Pep Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium, most City fans would much rather defeat Manchester United and therefore own the bragging rights for the city. That itself can be a contentious issue, with some saying that United don’t even play in Manchester.

Instead, they suggest, they play in Trafford and shouldn’t be called ‘Manchester’ United at all. Both teams’ supporters regularly argue over which ones actually come from Manchester, with City fans claiming that the majority of United fans are ‘tourists’. United fans, for their part, suggest that those who support City are just ‘glory hunters’ with no genuine ties to the club or the city itself. It is certainly the case that City often struggle to sell out their stadium for home matches, whilst their success has been entirely due to the arrival of Sheikh Mansour, whilst United’s global appeal means that mans supporters aren’t from the Manchester area.