Phenomenon Erling Haaland ended Manchester City’s dismantling of Manchester United with a third straight Premier League hat-trick in a chastising afternoon for Erik ten Hag’s men.
At the moment Haaland is too powerful, too hungry and just too good for the competition. The Norwegian can also manage, as he did with the passes that allowed Phil Foden to secure his second and final finish as he too enjoyed a hat-trick.
That 188th Derby was the mother and father of all mismatches, City taught their neighbors a lesson that left them reeling, United were 4-0 down at half-time – as at Brentford – and praying that certainly wasn’t in a double would end. digit defeat.
A final humiliation came with 25 minutes to go when Pep Guardiola made a quadruple substitution, two of which replaced the colorful Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne.
Antony and Anthony Martial were United’s goalscorers but their goals went first 4-1, then 6-2 and 6-3 (the Frenchman scored twice) on a day when United fans were shown leaving at the break and could not stand further bullying of their dazed players.
As Haaland, who now has 17 out of 10 for City, said: “Yeah, not bad. We scored six goals, what can you say? It’s nice. We always want to go forward, we always want to attack. I love that about the team. In the end it’s amazing. There is nothing more to say.”
City blew their visitors away from the start. They conquered the ball and space and were leading within 10 minutes. Ahead of Foden’s opening game, only a desperate defense against Scott McTominay and David de Gea kept them from getting injured.
As Haaland jumped at the far post to head in a cross from Bernardo Silva, McTominay stabbed it away only to see De Bruyne fire a shot that went on target before De Gea’s panther-like save, Silva had hampered his follow-up .
United were already drunk. Not required was Bruno Fernandes unnecessarily gifting the ball to the champions and how they batted. Foden led and ended a sequence that saw possession ebb and flow between himself, Grealish, Ilkay Gundogan and Silva. It came back to the No. 47, the conclusion of which De Gea hit his right post and went over Raphaël Varane’s shoulder.
Grealish had booked Diogo Dalot early on and his penchant for dribbling led to an opening City were almost a second away from. After leapfrogging Fernandes, Lisandro Martínez turned the left wingman upside down; Gündogan’s dead ball from 20 yards angled away from De Gea and hit the No 1’s left post.
That was quite a riot from the ones in blue. Further disruption occurred when the mighty Grealish tapped Silva and his dragback was hit by Foden, who shouldn’t have missed.
United, dazed, couldn’t stop City from pouring through them. Manuel Akanji, coming on to replace a surprisingly dropped Rúben Dias, showed a way as he floated the ball over the top to Kyle Walker, while Guardiola’s men enjoyed what United craved: total control – this despite their midfield metronome Rodri , who was absent due to injury. Antony summed up the state the visitors had to break out of when the wideman sprayed a ball at exactly nobody after a rare foray.
It was then no surprise what happened next. Varane had gone down near the area, prompting Fernandes to dump on Michael Oliver as the referee allowed the fight to continue. The round ended in a City corner, Varane went for treatment and De Bruyne swung in the free-kick. Up rose Haaland, who Christian Eriksen, McTominay and Dalot couldn’t stop from driving home.
16th place soon followed for the Norwegian, his partner in goal sacking again, De Bruyne. The latter wandered forward and delivered one of his cutting parabolas that left Varane out of position and Haaland in the perfect spot to slide in.
Cue Varane is substituted – horse, bolt and gate came to mind – for Victor Lindelöf. Walker also had to be taken out, with Sergio Gómez switching to left-back and João Cancelo switching to right-back.
Haaland turned to the provider for his next trick. De Bruyne also had an inevitable part, feeding the 22-year-old who flexed his run and drilled over a sweet ball which Foden swept past De Gea. All of a blue persuasion went into ecstasy.
In the second half, Luke Shaw replaced Tyrell Malacia but immediately De Gea had to save in front of Foden, who ran down the left-back’s corridor and got close. Guardiola, having a fit at 4-0 when Gómez failed to ping a ball forward, was an instructive sight. Perhaps he could smell Antony soon be speeding past Grealish and the dozing Gómez before taking off to ruffle the city’s web.
Ten Hag made the same move at McTominay for Casemiro and Marcus Rashford for Martial, leaving Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench, the Portuguese’s reply was a pout.
Haaland’s third ended a classic city move that saw De Bruyne have a one-two with Grealish, the Belgian who matched Gómez, whose delivery was smashed in by the fatal shooter.
Martial bundled one from behind Ederson to make it 6-2 and there was still time to score a penalty after Cancelo fouled him in the area. But the 6-3 was seriously flattering for United, who will need to recover quickly.
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