all the expectations and fascinating imaginations leading to this season of EPL relating to the league’s most prestigious and renovated rivalry storyline has reached its climax when Manchester United and City faced each other at Old Traford on Saturday. it was briefly indicated as a dream battle between Mourinho and Pep Guardiola courtesy to their glorious past accomplishments and most famously for their extraordinary chapter of unique rivalries at the whelm of charging best football clubs in the history of this game. while both fairly are identified as the most iconic tacticians in revolutionizing the game, equally they have symbolized a fierce narrative of the most dramatic brand of passion and mystery at the heart of coaching rivalry tradition and as part of their recognizable prestigious heritage they have achieved globally. both of them demonstrated their marvelously defined and exceptionally masterful coaching philosophy in their first duel of EPL history. Pep’s incredible attacking perfectionist style against Mourinho’s unique defensive work of art strategy; simply described, in one side standing a notorious perfectionist of the most entertaining style against a masterpiece of enigmatic reactive philosophy known as “special one” in the modern era. all said enough in praise of making this derby a battle of the year and it appeared to prove our point.
City sealed an incredible 2-1 win at the end to maintain their perfect record to start of their campaign and more importantly confirming one fact at least in early half of this season; seeing Pep Guardiola leading this incredible story against his Portuguese counterpart and perhaps suggested Jose Mourinho to acknowledge a serious challenge ahead of him from now on, but plenty of excitement, intensity and promising storylines might as well started to inspire the fans ultimately. Mourinho relied on his best starting that won the first three matches with Ibrahimovich featuring in the focal point of central attacking role with Rooney as withdrawn striker along side of Sweden man in front of three hybrid attacking creators, composing of Henrik mekhitarian and Lingard interchanging as wide playmakers switching centrally once Rooney pushing high to link up with ibrahimovich, freeing up two playmakers reverting into winger role for high tempo combination with tendency of becoming “advance central winger” force, a role requires a creative attacker with flash of technique, ample positional vision, adaptive change of pace and flexible passing-holding ability for crafty overlap runs and neat defense-splitting moves behind the strikers, which had seen the Armenian attacker and both Lingard and Mata if playing as wide attacker with that capability to deliver, particularly in presence of Ibra whose’s control skills and slick passing play offers width for speedy wingers to burst on the flanks and also enough possession for central men to hold on for longer time, relatively Pogba orchestrating passing movements in the midfield with his usual agility, vision and explosiveness, the ideal lynchpin of transition between the line, in partnership of two holding role to win the press and control opening runs as deep mid or supervising the build up passing to link with attackers, he set to be the engine of Mourinho’s plan from defense to attack. the idea seems to playing out carefully but soon struggled against City’s attacking flair and quality, Guardiola fielded his idea 4-3-3 formation with new signing duo of Kelechi Iheanacho and Nolito leading the attack with Nolito in the middle putting pressure to unmark United Center backs having both Iheanacho and Sterling as out-out strikers sparking pace to move inside and interchange with Kevin De Bruyn and Silva fluidly and ambitiously through their neat short exchanges in tight space with numbers, while willing to change of pace to combine with and offering wing backs Kolarov and Sagna, Fernandinho supervising the holding area deep in transition as the mobility of three midfielder over last two seasons clinched its highest cohesion with confidence of defensive work of back four in timely reaction to track United forward play to limit spaces outside of box then having both full backs running on the flanks to open up attacking options as they have done in last few weeks and in favor of this attacking formation they nearly dictate the match with far productivity. their pressure soon rewarded them an opening goal, Fernando sent a diagnol ball from deep over the gaps behind United back line as Iheanacho rose high to beat Eric Baily with a flicking header towards on run De Bruyn as his first touch split inside Luke Shaw to get forward in open space before beating De Gea to his accurate low range shot into the near post. the goal boosted visitor’s momentum, equally United faltered rapidly to find comfortable gear in the midfield and with struggling to keep De Bruyn, Silva constant link up with Iheanacho in the final third they conceded the second goal. in the 35th minutes Sterling attempted short exchange from central positions with Iheanacho caused United defense with a poor clearance inside the box and De Bruyn quickly picked it up before cutting inside to hit his left footed shot that hit the post, but Iheanacho easily tap in the rebound completely unmark to stunned the fans and Mourinho, great attacking movements and easy final touch proved to be a deserved result and that added more pressure on the host to spark some needed eagerness in attack and their effort paid off. Rooney sent in a long free kick from right which had both Bravo and Zabaleta with a confusing attempt to clear the ball as it falls to Ibrahimovich and he smashed a powerful half acrobatic volley with his right foot into the far post to reduce the gap and giving United fans some hope. they looked to find equalizer on the brink of half time, Rooney sliced a fine deep pass from midfield for Lingard racing over to beat both Sagna and Bravo in a quick turn to set Ibra with a finish, but strangely Sweden striker’s touch was weak enough for defense to clear it. in the second half United continued their search to break visitor’s back line and they might have denied to a suspicious penalty call ten minutes into the start. when receiving John Stone’s back pass Claudio Bravo’s tricky attempt to wrong foot Lingard under pressure was too lose as it almost fallen into Rooney path before goalkeeper quick reaction to contact with the ball tackled Rooney down, but referee didn’t call for a penalty and sight of danger went away. as United desperately chased the game, the introduction of Rashford apparently injected little bit freshness to their pace before Andre Herrera replacing Lingard to add sharper passing play, nonetheless they rarely created cutting edge chances and on the other side City remained ambitious to inspire going forward. in the 71th minutes Silva and De Bruyn executed a perfect corner kick which had Fernandinho braced fiercely in the center of box to smack a powerful half volley which De Gea dived perfectly to his right before quickly blocking Otamendi’s rebound with help of Baily. City firmly controlled the match with their fine possession and United slowly deemed to accept the defeat towards the end spell and one last opportunity came for City to wrap up the contest 15 minutes from the end. the substitute Leroy Sane charged on the right side around the box before picking up De Bruyn open run inside the box with his short pass and Belgian playmaker’s shot had accuracy but lack of real luck as it hit the near post and rolling past De Gea to wide of far post and City maintained their lead all the way through to celebrate a delightful win against their arch rival.
the headline of this duel embraced some emotional return to inspire this derby in courtesy of two great coaches reunion to rejuvenate sensational level of pedigree and entertainment into the heart of league, the main factor to rate this season arguably the best around the Europe. from technical perspective both team appeared to offer enthusiastic plan to record this famous victory, evidently it was Manchester City that seemed very sharp in adapting to dictate the battle through their attacking fluidity and midfield versatility as it inspired Pep ideal attacking formation to execute nearly perfect. De Bruyn and Silva combinations to ignite fluid movements and neat passing ability has mastered its efficiency, their flexible positional strength mixed with rhythmic change of pace defined an impressive balance to adapt pressing to build-up strategy in reliance of dynamic wingers like Sterling and Sane, while Fernandinho is excelled in central midfield role along with almost solid backline. time will tell how Pep’s transformation of incisive passing possession will mastermind its perfect level of achievement in City, but it is all promising. United will have to work hard finding a real balance and efficiency to win this race.
