United Win Manchester Derby
City Fail to Stop March on Premiersip Title - Ronaldo scores penalty
In a disappointing Manchester derby United win through a Ronaldo penalty and needing only one point, remain favourites to claim the Premiership title ahead of Chelsea.
A penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo ensures Manchester United’s recovery from the Champions League semi-final defeat and gives them an eight point lead over Chelsea at the top of the Premiership. It means that United need only one point from their remaining two games to become Champions. Even defeat at Chelsea who also lost in the semi-finals of the Champions League wouldn’t be enough to deny them the title – it is very much in their own hands and they could be win the title tomorrow if Chelsea fail to beat Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
It was the most comfortable of comfortable 1-0 wins for United. Manchester City have scored only ten goals at home in the Premiership this season and made little impact on United. Rio Ferdinand returned to the United defence following injury while City were without their aggressive and controversial midfield player, Joey Barton who has been suspended by the club following a training ground incident with Ousmane Dabo during the week.
City were obviously determined to give their neighbours little time and space to play their usual fast, flowing football but in doing so the first moment of note occurred. After two minutes, the Manchester City defender, Michael Ball, dispossessed Ronaldo but after the ball had been cleared he stamped on the United player as he lay on the ground. If the referee, Rob Styles, had seen the incident, Ball would have been shown a red card. The Football Association could well review this incident with Ball receiving a suspension.
With both teams testing each other out, there was little of note and certainly not the frenzy that one would expect from a local derby match. City were robust in their tackling but on thirty four minutes, perhaps justice was seen to be done when Ronaldo won a penalty following a foul by Michael Ball and taking it himself gave United the lead.
City were fortunate that referee Styles was lenient towards the nature of their tackles, on another day or with a different referee there could have been a number of yellow or red cards. City lacked any conviction and showed their total lack of confidence in front of goal. When they created any chance to score, they fluffed it. Even when awarded a penalty with ten minutes remaining, following a foul by Wes Brown on Ball, the former Aston Villa striker, Darius Vassell had his shot saved by the legs of Edwin Van der Sar. The goalkeeper had been booked for delaying the penalty as he complained about where Vassell had placed the ball for the penalty.
That signalled the end for City while United comfortably played out time to make sure they took the three points. It was a disappointing derby game which United totally dominated, statistics showing that they had 79% of possession throughout the match.
A title win is now a formality for United. Only two defeats to Chelsea and West Ham accompanied by three wins for Jose Mourinho’s side would deny United from claiming their first title since 2003.
