It had been hyped up as the biggest Manchester derby in 81 years but it only proved to be the setting for Manchester United’s biggest defeat in 81 years as incredibly Manchester City romped to a 6-1 win at Old Trafford to move five points clear at the top of the table.

United started the game brightly and good play by Ashley Young caught the eye as United saw the majority of the ball in the opening 20 minutes. City though weathered the storm and went ahead after 22 minutes. Moments after David Silva had almost created a scoring opportunity; good play by the Spaniard sent James Milner into the box who slotted the ball back to Mario Balotelli to stroke home from inside the area.

David De Gea in goal couldn’t do anything about the quality of the shot and after being in the headlines for setting fireworks off in his own house the morning of the game, it was a great moment for Balotelli to savour, which he did revealing a message on his t-shirt underneath which resulted in him picking up a booking from referee Mark Clattenburg.

United to their credit tried to fight back with Anderson and Wayne Rooney having shots comfortably saved by Joe Hart whilst Danny Welbeck tried to create problems up top causing City’s central defensive pairing of Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott to work as hard as possible to keep the local-lad from brining others into play. Jonny Evans though should have equalised moments before half-time missing his kick five yards from goal after being picked out brilliantly by Wayne Rooney at the near post.

City were as expected delighted going into half-time 1-0 up, but sadly for United’s fans they were delighted two minutes into the second-half when Jonny Evans received a straight red-card for hauling down Balotteli through on goal. Whilst it was it was a poor bit of judgement by the Northern Irish international, City should never have been through on goal in the first place as the chance came about via a mistimed pass by Chris Smalling.

It was a straight red for Evans who in being sent off so early in the half, pretty much wrecked Sir Alex Ferguson’s half-time team talk and threw it out of the window. City now a man up seemed to grow in spirit and despite Ashley Young and Rooney having half-chances expectantly doubled the lead. Silva again was at the heart of the move flicking a ball through to Milner – who had roamed into space away from Patrice Evra – to slide the ball across goal for Balotelli to hammer in from close range.

Almost 10 minutes after conceding the second, United went 3-0 down. A clever backheel from Balotelli picked out Milner who fed the ball in for Micah Richards to cross into the area for Sergio Aguero to hammer home past his ex-Athletico Madrid team mate De Gea who was rightly livid with his defenders. It was carnage in the United defence and but for wasteful finishing by Silva and substitute Edin Dzeko, United could have been 4-0 down.

Even when Darren Fletcher played a nice one-two with Javier Hernandez and curled an unstoppable shot into the top corner, the game was out of reach for United who with 10 minutes left needed to sit back and avoid further embarrassment. Sadly they couldn’t do that as City not happy with only scoring three goals went were far from finished and scored three goals in injury time. First Dzeko kneed in a Lescott knock-down from a corner before Silva deservedly got on the score-sheet after a quick break with Dzeko applying the finishing touches with a drive moments after the big Bosnian had blazed over when it seemed impossible to miss.

United: De Gea, Evra, Ferdinand, Evans, Smalling, Young, Fletcher, Anderson (Hernandez), Nani (Jones), Rooney, Welbeck

Star Man

Whilst David Silva may have got the plaudits for running the midfield yesterday for City, I would like to highlight Micah Richards who yesterday was outstanding. Here is a young defender who has been around since 2006 who by now is showing why he was spoken about as a future England captain. He’s brave, strong as an ox, good going forward and at the back and is right now one of the best defenders yet alone full-backs in the country. He was not bullied by United at all yesterday and deserves respect for that (even if by admitting that it’s making my stomach curdle!).

By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87