MANCHESTER – Old Trafford cheered as the final whistle sounded in the 189th Manchester derby.
A win against Manchester City is always something to celebrate. However, this felt like more to Manchester United fans.
A 2-1 win on Saturday was the latest testimony for the team Improvement under manager Erik ten Hag and the potential of an unlikely Premier League title challenge.
“Faith is back and we are in a good direction,” said Ten Hag.
Substitute Jack Grealish had put City ahead in the second half but goals from Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford secured the points for United and helped retaliate humiliating 6-3 defeat to his neighbor in October.
The win also puts United just a point behind defending champions City and third in the standings – six points behind leaders Arsenal.
For now, Ten Hag dismisses the idea that United have been in contention for a first title since 2013. However, the form of his team tells its own story.
“Fans may dream, but we are not. We have to keep our feet on the ground and see that our game still has a lot to improve,” said the Dutchman.
Ten Hag was unhappy with the way United allowed City to take control after creating better chances in the first half.
Fernandes’ 78th-minute equaliser, meanwhile, was disputed after an initial offside decision was overturned.
Rashford was behind the last man in the build-up to goal and although he didn’t touch the ball, Pep Guardiola and City’s players believed the striker had interfered in the game.
“To be honest, the first goal for me is a joke that it’s allowed like that,” said City defender Manuel Akanji.
Guardiola suggested the Old Trafford game was a factor in the goal being allowed.
“The decision is that they didn’t believe Rashford interfered at that stadium. This is Old Trafford, we have to play much better, like Anfield, we have to do better,” he said.
Goal debate aside, it was another encouraging performance from United to end a triple losing streak against City from a goal deficit.
United have already beaten Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham this season and have now won nine games in a row.
They have lost just one game in 18 since that derby loss to City in October.
“We’ve improved, that’s obvious. There’s still a long way to go, a long way to go, many aspects of our game we need to improve, but we’re making progress, it’s pretty obvious,” said Ten Hag. “We often talk about teams developing and tactics advancing. One of the main tasks of a manager and a coaching team is to work on the mentality of the team and that mentality has many elements. One of them is resilience, the determination of this team is making great strides in these facts of dealing with setbacks, dealing with suffering in painful moments and going on after setbacks like a goal against us.”
It was the toughest test of United’s resurgence under Ten Hag, even as City surprisingly lost 2-0 to Southampton in the English League Cup on Wednesday.
United had the better of chances in the first half as Rashford cleared an Akanji shot off the line after circling Ederson and then smothered another attempt from the City goalkeeper.
City took control after the break and Grealish opened the scoring in the 60th minute, just three minutes after coming on as a substitute, when he headed in a Kevin de Bruyne cross.
United equalized the result against the run of play when Fernandes scored.
Just four minutes later, Rashford found the winner from close range, converting substitute Alejandro Garnacho’s cross.
It was the forward’s 16th goal of the season and his eighth in the last seven games.
“After we concede a goal we can’t concede the next one, that’s the most important detail we have to improve in the future,” said Guardiola.
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