Match date: 8 April 2013

Manchester United have almost certainly won the Premier League title, coming into this match 15 points ahead of their rivals, but Manchester City would be hoping to take away a bit of the celebrations from Old Trafford and three points.

An interesting selection from Ferguson sees Giggs and Welbeck start, with Giggs partnering Carrick in the middle of the pitch, and Welbeck on the right side of midfield. Perhaps, with his selection, Ferguson was anticipating City to be dominate enough where they would push the full backs forward, so named Welbeck and Young on the wings to try to exploit the space in behind, but neither did much on either side of the ball.

City Attack Down the Left

Nasri started on the left side of City’s attack, with Gael Clichy repeatedly making runs forward in support and both connected well with Silva, Tevez, Barry, Yaya Toure, and one another. Barry and Yaya Youre both looked for Clichy down the left as well, passing him the ball 25 times, the most of of any other player.

Barry and Toure also passed the ball out to Nasri 19 times, so that’s 44 passed from the central midfielders to the left sided players, compared to combined 12 passes from the same duo to Milner and Zabaleta on the right.

Ferguson’s decision to put Welbeck on the right seemed a good one once City started attacking down the left because Welbeck is decent at tracking back (at least compared to Rooney, see the first leg versus Real Madrid and Fabio Coentrao’s freedom), but seemed too high up the pitch a lot of the time. Clichy found plenty of space to get into as Welbeck would move central when he dropped deep, rather than stay closer to the touchline as Ferguson might have gotten out of Valencia.

When City have found success in previous Manchester derbies, they’ve always looked to get the ball wide so there are always going to be a high number of passes out to the wide players, but in this case, Silva and Tevez also found plenty of room on the left side of City’s attack. As mentioned, Welbeck would drift centrally when he was dropping into defense and occupy the space that Silva would usually look to get into, thus Silva drifted out to the left to find space and with City favouring the left side in their build ups, Tevez too had to drift to the left to get the ball to feet.

City Press Well

Manchester City were much the better side on the night, both offensively and defensively, playing as though the game were at home rather than at Old Trafford, with Manchester United looking to play on the counter attack as much as possible, rather than have sustained possession in City’s half, which would explain the inclusion of Welbeck and Young compared to other options.

City made it difficult for United to play as they out passed the home side, but also pressed very well when United had the ball. It was hard for Carrick and Giggs to make any penetrative passes or get by Barry and Yaya Toure, neither attempting a take on in the midfield, whereas Barry had the games most successful take-ons with two and Toure with one. City’s first goal came with Barry winning the ball back on the left side of City’s attack from Carrick. Overall, in United’s half, they won 5 of their 6 attempted tackles.

Once they won the ball back, City were quick to get the ball forward to the likes of Tevez, who was very good at checking in to midfield with space between him and the United defenders.’

Making Changes

Mancini made the first change of the game, bringing on Sergio Aguero for Nasri who, as mentioned before, combined well with Silva and Tevez, but was always going to be the first of the attacking quartet to leave the field.

Aguero introduction meant that SIlva shifted to the left and Tevez dropped to where Silva was playing with Aguero adding a new dimension to City’s attack. Tevez played very well for City up top, receiving the ball with his back to goal and bringing other players into the game, but Aguero has more pace and could really run at Ferdinand and Jones as he did to score his goal.

Receiving the ball on the left side of City’s attack, he dragged Welbeck, briefly Ferdinand, and Jones with him as he scored a goal reminiscent of his winner against QPR last year to win the title for City.

Ferguson’s changes were in response to going 2-1 down rather than trying to win back the game in the midfield. He had Cleverly on the bench, who he could have introduced in replace of Giggs, who attempted the most passes for United, but was wasteful and failed to complete almost all of the penetrative passes he attempted. Instead, he brought on Valencia for Welbeck, which really should have come sooner considering his defensive qualities and City’s freedom to attack on the left, the origin of Aguero’s goal. Kagawa could have come on much sooner as well, only coming on in 92nd minute.

Conclusion

Ferguson said in his post match interview that United were unlucky to lose the game, which is an odd one considering City were much the better side. He will be comforted by the fact that United still have a 12 point lead. He also defended Robin Van Persie, who had another poor game and has now gone 10 games without scoring. In comparison, in terms of minutes, that matches Fernando Torres longest barren spell at Chelsea.

City attacked incredibly well down the left side, something they’ve looked to do in prior games against United, and they certainly brought the game to United overall.