Manchester United 1-6 Manchester City

If the semi final defeat at Wembley hurt, and it did, this was on a whole different level, 6-1 at home, this was as bad as it gets. I couldn't say i was that confident when i saw the teamsheet, no Cleverley, and Anderson and Fletcher in the middle of the park didn't inspire confidence. And i had remarked on Evans one mistake a game on Saturday, why Vidic was missing i have no idea. Ferdinand didn't do anything wrong in particular, but he looks short of this level now. I would be amazed if he was still here next season.
And yet we started the game better than i had expected, dominating possession, without it has to be said, particularly looking like scoring. The worrying thing was that we saw that when Young and Nani were tied up and unable to raise their game United looked very ill equipped to break a strong City rearguard down. City didn't break forward much but when they did they looked more dangerous, mainly it has to be said because they had the best player on the pitch and maybe the best player in the premier league right nowin David Silva. He started well and really came into his own when we went down to ten men. You can have all the workhorses you want in midfield, but there is no substitute for class and now Scholes has retired we are well short of where we need to be.
United responded reasonably well to going a goal down, attacking with more purpose and forcing Hart into action with a couple of long range shots. But our best chance came from a cross that saw Rooney tap a perfect pass straight to the feet of Evans who managed to completely miss the ball. It wasn't to get any better for the Ulsterman.
We didn't start the second half as well as i would have liked but we still managed to create a gold plated chance Young conpsired to make a right mess of. It didn't take long for United to rue the miss. One of Jonny Evans biggest weakspots is how easy he gets turned and yet again it came back to haunt him and us. How he let Balotelli get away from him only he can answer, but once he had he should let him go and hoped De Gea would get him out of jail. It was awful defending and sooner or later Fergie will have to admit defeat and pick Smalling or Jones in front of him to partner Vidic.
To have any chance had to get the next goal and hope for the best, i couldn't see it happening and it didn't. Not for the first time United were completely opened up on our left hand side where Evra may have looked good going forward but had an absolute mare, again defensively. When Balotelli got the second it was effectively game over, because as far as was concerned we were now playing for pride. As much as it pains me to say it, the divs are now a top side and you don't come back from two down with ten men.
When the third goal went in from Aguerro i just wanted the whistle to go there and then, 3-0 at home was a disaster but you could see that this could get worse. The Flethcer goal was a great strike but it's probably true that if we hadn't have got that we wouldn't have commited as many men forward and suffered those desperate final minutes where we basically just fell apart. The final three goals all came United mistakes.
The season isn't over, United will come back from this but next weekend's game will be a test, Goodison isn't the place i would have picked for us to go and start rebuilding our confidence.
It's hard to pinpoint any positives from the game, but if i was to pick one it would be that Welbeck, though he did make mistakes, showed the kind of attitude that i want to see from a United player, still giving his all when the game was well and truly gone.

Fergie described it as his worst ever day at the club and had a go at our suicidal display. Mark Larwenson describes this as the day City finally announced themselves as real title contenders but thinks United will bounce back. He is right to say this defeat has been coming and right to wonder exactly what Anderson brings to the table.
After the first few games i was discussing United with a fellow red at work where i said that i thought United would be much more exciting this season but with new young defenders to be in and a more open style of play i thought that we would probably get a real hammering at some point of the season. I just hoped it wouldn't be in a game that mattered. Famous last words. Alan Hansen thinks City now have a great chance of the title and points out United's problems in defence.


Paul Waugh wonders how Cameron and his team could have got their European strategy so wrong as he continues to alienate his Eurosceptic right. Mary Ann Sieghart can't understand why Cameron has picked a fight over Europe when he had no need to.
Alistair Campbell reveals that Cameron's strategy for everything seems to be to blame everybody else. But his bizarre fight against his own backbenchers will likely end up with him looking weaker. Bagehot thinks that the tory right are wrong headed, Cameron needs room for manouevre. Paul Krugman blogs that he believes the Eurozone is doomed and that it will go the way of the gold standard. He hopes it won't but he can't see how it can survive.

Will Hutton has had enough of Mervyn King and his la la land economics. Larry Elliott runs with the same theme in todays Guardian, arguing that you can't blame current economic woes on the crisis in the Eurozone. Whilst fellow Observer columnist looks at the scandal of HMRC and its chief Dave Hartnett claiming it's welcome to Britain a haven for tax dodgers.