Old Trafford danced on Saturday afternoon when the Red Devils devoured perennial rivals Manchester City 2-0 in a grand style.
Newly appointed manager Michael Carrick could not ask for more after his side stepped up and dominated Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the crucial fixture.
The 2-0 results look deceptive after Manchester United had three goals disallowed by VAR and also hit the woodwork on two occasions.
After a much dominant first half, which ended goalless, Manchester United opened the scoring with a blistering counterattack where skipper Bruno Fernandes beautifully set up Mbeumo, whose shot from the right-hand side beat the impressive Donnarumma.
Matheus Cunha had the better of O’Reilly as his cross was met by Dorgu, who connected it with an aggressive touch to double the home team’s lead.
After the brilliant win in Michael Carrick’s first home game, the young manager praised his players and called for consistency.
“The boys were fantastic, in so many ways,” Carrick said after witnessing an impressive performance from his players.
“And to manage it emotionally with the information we’ve given them and pulling it together, it was pretty good.
“That’s the challenge ultimately – it needs to be a version of normal, certainly we’re not going to have games with the emotion and the feeling of everything that today brought.
“We all understand that, but there’s definitely a level of standards and expectation we need to live up to from ourselves as much as anyone on the outside.”
“Consistency is the key to any success, and if you can find that, then you’re on to a winner. That’s our challenge. We’ve got to find a way of doing that. Big one next week, another tough one, but on the back of today we’ve got a good foundation to build on,” Michael Carrick added. The former Manchester United midfielder seeks consistency as it will be key to the club achieving its target of qualifying for next season’s UEFA Champions League.
Manchester United will travel to Arsenal in their next league game and must repeat the performance against Manchester City to stand any chance of beating the league leaders.
The 2-0 win ended the club’s four-game winless run, including the horrible 2-1 defeat at home in the FA Cup against Brighton under the guidance of interim manager Darren Fletcher. The Red Devils occupy 5th position, having won nine in 22 league games played thus far.
