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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Manchester United v Manchester City: Premier League – live! | Manchester United v Manchester City: Premier League – live! |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 4.24pm BST16:24 | |
| 24 mins: Milner is the first player to go into the book for a fairly cynical tug on Herrera. “We all hate Leeds scum,” rings around Old Trafford. | |
| 4.23pm BST16:23 | |
| 22 mins: Young tracks back to help out his defence, perhaps recalling those strange but halcyon days when he was a wing-back for a bit, but only succeeds in conceding a corner with a bit of iffy control. | |
| 4.21pm BST16:21 | |
| 20 mins: This is insanely frantic. Valencia is caught out of position so City attack down their left. A cross comes in low to the near post and Aguero, he can’t quite control it but the ball breaks to Silva, only for his effort to be blocked. All of that happened in the space of about seven seconds. | |
| 4.20pm BST16:20 | |
| 19 mins: Blind plays a horrible pass back to De Gea, and the United keeper takes a bit of a heavy touch off his thigh, and for a moment it looks like Aguero will nip in to rob him, but he gets the punt away in time. | |
| 4.18pm BST16:18 | |
| 17 mins: Lovely stuff so far, this. Herrera gets the ball about 35 yards from his own goal and, under the sadly mistaken impression that he might have a bit of time to stand and think about how to distribute the ball, Aguero scampers up behind him like a wee monkey sneaking up on someone to nick their sandwich. Luckily for United, Herrera spots the danger just in time. | |
| 4.16pm BST16:16 | |
| 16 mins: Shrewd work in the transfer market by United... | |
| Smart move signing Di Maria to get the best out of Ashley Young. | |
| 4.15pm BST16:15 | |
| 15 mins: Don’t think Hart has touched the ball yet. | |
| 4.15pm BST16:15 | |
| 14 mins: De Gea gets to a short back pass and clears upfield, where Fellaini flicks on to Herrera on the left flank. He crosses to the near post where Young gets something on it, it’s half-blocked, then comes off the United man’s back and drops to him about four yards out, with Hart prone, and he belts it gratefully into the roof of the net. | |
| 4.14pm BST16:14 | |
| GOAL! Manchester United 1-1 Manchester City (Young 14) | |
| And there we go. What a game this is. | |
| 4.12pm BST16:12 | |
| 12 mins: But they do eventually, and Young’s run down the right is halted by a slight shove by Clichy, the winger requiring little invitation to eat turf. | |
| 4.12pm BST16:12 | |
| 11 mins: Milner is finding himself further up the pitch than Aguero at points, closing down relentlessly. Smalling tries to bring the ball out of defence but his ill-advised dribble is halted. The ball reaches Fernandinho but he’s fouled by a vaguely panicked-looking Herrera. United can’t get out of their own half. | |
| 4.10pm BST16:10 | |
| 10 mins: A drought, ended... | |
| Aguero's first goal since 24 Feb... and his sixth in a league derby... | |
| 4.10pm BST16:10 | |
| 8 mins: Well, this was excellent. Clichy gives it to Milner on the left corner of the area, he slips a delightful reverse ball to Silva who’s in an unconscionable amount of space near the byline, not helped by a comically dithering pair of Phil Jones and Michael Carrick who stand not knowing whether to come or go, end up doing neither and give Silva the time to square to Aguero, who tucks into an empty net from four yards. | |
| 4.07pm BST16:07 | |
| GOAL! Manchester United 0-1 Manchester City (Aguero 8) | |
| And that’s been coming. | |
| 4.07pm BST16:07 | |
| 7 mins: City take a short corner that United are unprepared for. The ball eventually finds its way to Toure in the box, but his shot is blocked with some gusto about eight yards out. Frantic start - lovely stuff. | |
| 4.06pm BST16:06 | |
| 6 mins: Navas gets away after a long and vaguely hopeful ball down the right channel, but after cutting inside he can only shoots straight at De Gea. City have started this with the purpose they’ve been missing in recent weeks. | |
| 4.04pm BST16:04 | |
| 4 mins: Silva clips the ball down the left looking for Aguero, but the Argentinean is surprisingly uncertain with the ball and, after dithering for a bit, loses possession. | |
| 4.02pm BST16:02 | |
| 2 mins: Hatchet man Gael Clichy gets a finger wagged at him for a late foul on Juan Mata, but nothing more. Looks like City are playing a 4-2-3-1 with Navas right, Silva left and - get this - James Milner in the No.10 role. | |
| 4.01pm BST16:01 | |
| 1 min: And we’re away. It’s loud at OT. Vincent Kompany’s first act is to hoy a pass out of play. Strong start. | |
| 4.00pm BST16:00 | |
| Justin Kavanagh writes: “People sleeping with other people in their families in a completely inappropriate way…it wouldn’t happen in football. Now let’s get on with the action and Manchester Unit…oh!” | |
| 3.56pm BST15:56 | |
| The players are in the tunnel. One of the mascots is holding a fairly detailed conversation with Wayne Rooney, rather than standing there nervously as they usually do. Brassy young man. | |
| Updated at 4.03pm BST | |
| 3.51pm BST15:51 | |
| Re; the Frostrup column, Craig McEwan writes: “Absolutely agree with your advice on this Nick. Any pearls of wisdom for Louis and Manuel?” | |
| They should just kiss and get it over with. | |
| Mark Judd says: “Mariella Frostrup’s advice column today, soon to be re-named Advice Corner with Nick I’d wager. I agree with your assessment but what worries me is how many weddings in the future will now be more closely scrutinised for signs of a relationship between bridegroom and father-in-law. The man has opened a real can of worms.” | |
| And finally, a serious point from Philip Podolsky: “Outing other people or pressuring them to come out is terrible, unless they are conservative firebrands preaching hate for LGBT people. Also, wondering if the fact that the column’s gone a bit viral (I’ve heard of it twice today and I live in another bleeding country!) may further the plot somehow. Those two men are going to be very awkward around one another at family gatherings, perhaps giving rise to suspicions, hints and allegations.” | |
| 3.46pm BST15:46 | 3.46pm BST15:46 |
| “He takes part in the game,” says Graeme Souness when discussing Marouane Fellaini. | “He takes part in the game,” says Graeme Souness when discussing Marouane Fellaini. |
| Ouch. | Ouch. |
| 3.43pm BST15:43 | 3.43pm BST15:43 |
| Manuel Pellegrini is being interviewed on the telly. He’s got the cold, dead eyes of a man who knows he’s going to be doing something else in a few weeks. Either that or he’s just really boring. | Manuel Pellegrini is being interviewed on the telly. He’s got the cold, dead eyes of a man who knows he’s going to be doing something else in a few weeks. Either that or he’s just really boring. |
| 3.31pm BST15:31 | 3.31pm BST15:31 |
| Now, if you absolutely insist on talking about football, and this football match in particular, we could probably do that. So here’s some pre-game reading... | Now, if you absolutely insist on talking about football, and this football match in particular, we could probably do that. So here’s some pre-game reading... |
| 3.17pm BST15:17 | 3.17pm BST15:17 |
| Now, we could sit here for as long as you like discussing those teams. Where will James Milner play? Is it a gamble not playing Marcos Rojo? But enough of all that, for there’s something far more pressing to turn our attention to, and it’s elsewhere on these pages today. Indeed, you may already have seen it, but here it is anyway, from Mariella Frostrup’s advice column today: | Now, we could sit here for as long as you like discussing those teams. Where will James Milner play? Is it a gamble not playing Marcos Rojo? But enough of all that, for there’s something far more pressing to turn our attention to, and it’s elsewhere on these pages today. Indeed, you may already have seen it, but here it is anyway, from Mariella Frostrup’s advice column today: |
| The dilemma I have been in love for the last year and recently proposed. After 10 years of bisexuality (though I had more female partners than male) I was happy, excited and in love. She introduced me to her parents three months ago and her father and I recognised each other from a local cruising site. We have been intimate on about three or four occasions. He has made contact with me and asked me to tell my fiancée about my sexuality. I asked if his wife knew about his, and we have reached something of an impasse. He has since taken screenshots of old photos of me and I have also found some of him. Shall I just walk away from the woman of my dreams? | The dilemma I have been in love for the last year and recently proposed. After 10 years of bisexuality (though I had more female partners than male) I was happy, excited and in love. She introduced me to her parents three months ago and her father and I recognised each other from a local cruising site. We have been intimate on about three or four occasions. He has made contact with me and asked me to tell my fiancée about my sexuality. I asked if his wife knew about his, and we have reached something of an impasse. He has since taken screenshots of old photos of me and I have also found some of him. Shall I just walk away from the woman of my dreams? |
| Quite the head-scratcher. But there are so many questions here. But the most important is, surely, why is this even a debate? What does either party gain by telling all? That’s two broken marriages that could all have been avoided with some mutually beneficial lying. Of course, being honest about one’s sexuality with a partner is fairly fundamental, but yer man here seems to be of the opinion that he can’t tell his fiancée one thing without the other; by all means tell her you’re bisexual, but for the love of everything holy, don’t tell her that you have engaged in the act of physical congress with her old man. What on earth is wrong with you? | Quite the head-scratcher. But there are so many questions here. But the most important is, surely, why is this even a debate? What does either party gain by telling all? That’s two broken marriages that could all have been avoided with some mutually beneficial lying. Of course, being honest about one’s sexuality with a partner is fairly fundamental, but yer man here seems to be of the opinion that he can’t tell his fiancée one thing without the other; by all means tell her you’re bisexual, but for the love of everything holy, don’t tell her that you have engaged in the act of physical congress with her old man. What on earth is wrong with you? |
| Still, that’s going to be a father of the bride speech absolutely drenched in subtext. We all need to be there. | Still, that’s going to be a father of the bride speech absolutely drenched in subtext. We all need to be there. |
| Honestly, they should give me Mariella’s column. Wasted on football, me. | Honestly, they should give me Mariella’s column. Wasted on football, me. |
| 3.03pm BST15:03 | 3.03pm BST15:03 |
| Team news | Team news |
| Manchester United | Manchester United |
| De Gea, Valencia, Smalling, Jones, Blind, Carrick, Fellaini, Herrera, Mata, Young, Rooney. Subs: Valdes, Rafael, Rojo, McNair, Januzaj, Di Maria, Falcao. | De Gea, Valencia, Smalling, Jones, Blind, Carrick, Fellaini, Herrera, Mata, Young, Rooney. Subs: Valdes, Rafael, Rojo, McNair, Januzaj, Di Maria, Falcao. |
| Manchester City | Manchester City |
| Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Demichelis, Clichy, Fernandinho, Toure, Navas, Milner, Silva, Aguero. Subs: Caballero, Mangala, Kolarov, Fernando, Nasri, Lampard, Dzeko. | Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Demichelis, Clichy, Fernandinho, Toure, Navas, Milner, Silva, Aguero. Subs: Caballero, Mangala, Kolarov, Fernando, Nasri, Lampard, Dzeko. |
| Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Co. Durham) | Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Co. Durham) |
| 3.00pm BST15:00 | 3.00pm BST15:00 |
| Preamble | Preamble |
| That Manchester United are favourites for this game seems weird. And that it seems weird also seems weird. United were favourites for every derby for about a thousand years (or something like that), then Manchester City stopped being Manchester City and became something new, brasher and more shiny, and since then they have held the whip hand, and given their resources and the travails up Salford way, you thought it would stay that way for a while to come. The money of City and the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson were supposed to combine to create a new hierarchy, to make City the new power; the city was indeed supposed to be theirs. | That Manchester United are favourites for this game seems weird. And that it seems weird also seems weird. United were favourites for every derby for about a thousand years (or something like that), then Manchester City stopped being Manchester City and became something new, brasher and more shiny, and since then they have held the whip hand, and given their resources and the travails up Salford way, you thought it would stay that way for a while to come. The money of City and the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson were supposed to combine to create a new hierarchy, to make City the new power; the city was indeed supposed to be theirs. |
| And yet, here we are. The fates (and, admittedly, some footballers) have conspired to set this game up at a time when City are in their worst form in some time and United are looking properly good for the first time since the old boy left. Thus, it would be something of a surprise if the established power didn’t best the arrivistes at Old Trafford today, with United assuredly beating Tottenham, Liverpool and Aston Villa while City have conspired to lose five of their last seven, including Monday’s utterly insipid capitulation to Crystal Palace. | And yet, here we are. The fates (and, admittedly, some footballers) have conspired to set this game up at a time when City are in their worst form in some time and United are looking properly good for the first time since the old boy left. Thus, it would be something of a surprise if the established power didn’t best the arrivistes at Old Trafford today, with United assuredly beating Tottenham, Liverpool and Aston Villa while City have conspired to lose five of their last seven, including Monday’s utterly insipid capitulation to Crystal Palace. |
| Manuel Pellegrini seems absolutely unconcerned, in public at least, about his own position. The Chilean is surely a dead man walking after not so much failing to convincingly defend City’s Premier League title as sending it to Chelsea with a barber shop quartet and a massive bow, plus limply shuffling out of the Champions League having displayed virtually zero progress in the biggest pot of all. But still, here he is: “The pressure for the manager of a big team is always the same one, if you choose this for a career you must learn to live in the present...All the managers are getting the sack the moment they are not winning, you see it every year with big teams so I try not to let it bother me and continue to have a normal life. I trust I am good at my job and I think also that the club trusts me in the job. Of course you must try to win titles but the same team cannot win the title every year here because the competition in the Premier League is so strong.” | Manuel Pellegrini seems absolutely unconcerned, in public at least, about his own position. The Chilean is surely a dead man walking after not so much failing to convincingly defend City’s Premier League title as sending it to Chelsea with a barber shop quartet and a massive bow, plus limply shuffling out of the Champions League having displayed virtually zero progress in the biggest pot of all. But still, here he is: “The pressure for the manager of a big team is always the same one, if you choose this for a career you must learn to live in the present...All the managers are getting the sack the moment they are not winning, you see it every year with big teams so I try not to let it bother me and continue to have a normal life. I trust I am good at my job and I think also that the club trusts me in the job. Of course you must try to win titles but the same team cannot win the title every year here because the competition in the Premier League is so strong.” |
| That’s probably a sensible approach, not least because, well, he can hardly be expected to say ‘Yeah, I’m toast really. A goner. Absolutely done. I would save us all some time by resigning but, y’know...’ before rubbing his finger and thumb together. But also because he’d send himself postal if he recognised his own managerial mortality. And you never know - he could save his own skin if he managed to wrangle his drifting troops into something approaching a performance or a win in this game. Possibly. Probably not. | That’s probably a sensible approach, not least because, well, he can hardly be expected to say ‘Yeah, I’m toast really. A goner. Absolutely done. I would save us all some time by resigning but, y’know...’ before rubbing his finger and thumb together. But also because he’d send himself postal if he recognised his own managerial mortality. And you never know - he could save his own skin if he managed to wrangle his drifting troops into something approaching a performance or a win in this game. Possibly. Probably not. |
| For his part, Louis van Gaal was in brassy form this week, reckoning that City could be less of a threat than Aston Villa. “City won’t play many long balls,” he explained. “We have had problems all season with that kind of club and playing style. We are not such a tall team so we have problems if people hit high balls at our defence. We are pressing better now, and with the system we play at the moment it is easier, but if you analyse the Villa game [Christian] Benteke still won all the duels. If you watch the match again you can see Benteke won everything.” | For his part, Louis van Gaal was in brassy form this week, reckoning that City could be less of a threat than Aston Villa. “City won’t play many long balls,” he explained. “We have had problems all season with that kind of club and playing style. We are not such a tall team so we have problems if people hit high balls at our defence. We are pressing better now, and with the system we play at the moment it is easier, but if you analyse the Villa game [Christian] Benteke still won all the duels. If you watch the match again you can see Benteke won everything.” |
| Who knows? Perhaps City will spend the whole game aiming for The Mixer and turn Sergio Aguero into a target man. We shall see. | Who knows? Perhaps City will spend the whole game aiming for The Mixer and turn Sergio Aguero into a target man. We shall see. |
| Kick-off: 4pm BST. | Kick-off: 4pm BST. |