Reuters Soccer Blog

Have City knocked United off their perch?

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini was quick to say that his team’s 6-1 mauling of arch-rivals United meant little more than another three points in the bag, but the Italian must surely be hoping it could signal a shift in the balance of power.

Having knocked Liverpool off their perch when they won a record 19th league title last season, United now face the prospect of playing second fiddle to City in England and Manchester, should their heaviest defeat to their neighbours in 56 years prove to be more than just a temporary setback.

Ferguson and several pundits wasted no time in pointing out United were undone after central defender Jonny Evans was sent off for a professional foul early in the second half.

But City were already on top at that point and earned their extra man on the pitch by carving United open with a defence-splitting pass — which left Evans only with the alternative of letting Mario Balotelli run through on goal.

Fielding his unpredictable compatriot Balotelli instead of Edin Dzeko up front turned out to be a masterstroke by Mancini, much like his entire strategy which worked to devastating effect.

Any hopes of a trademark United comeback when Darren Fletcher made it 3-1 vanished after late substitute Dzeko scored a brace to throw the blue half of Manchester into raptures, prompting Ferguson to adopt an unfamiliar line in his post-match reactions.

“We just kept attacking. It’s alright playing with the history books but common sense has to come in at times. With the experience we had at the back, we should have realised that and settled for what we had when it went to 4-1,” Ferguson told the club’s official website (www.manutd.com).

A great Milan derby but what about that red card?

Sunday’s Milan derby had just about everything.

Red cards, controversies, a missed penalty, great play, Jose Mourinho his usual outlandish self and a another stunning Inter Milan performance (plus unused Inter substitute Marco Materazzi bizarrely walking around at full-time wearing a face mask of Silvio Berlusconi.)

For the leaders to beat their main title rivals 2-0 with nine men is just another example of the remarkable grit of Mourinho’s side.

How many other teams in world football would have folded against an AC Milan team who did not play all that badly?

Inter should be on cloud nine (well, they are now nine points clear) but instead there is a ‘strange taste, strange smell’ about the win, according to Mourinho.

Wesley Sneijder’s 26th minute dismissal for ironically applauding the referee was harsh to say the least.

UPDATE: Derby fever hits the predictions league

Monday update: You would think 14 games into the season we would have learnt who was likely to beat who in the Premier League. Sadly not. I did OK for a change but only Martyn Herman really covered himself in glory with two five pointers for Villa 1-1 Spurs and Manchester City collecting yet another draw against Hull City.

But I wouldn’t celebrate like Jimmy Bullard just yet, Martyn, you’re still third bottom.

So how did you do? Let us know in the comments. If you predicted at least one Drogba goal you can have a bonus point but I doubt anybody thought Rooney would get a hat-trick. As for Liverpool actually winning, well they had to get a flukey deflection sometime…

Updated Reuters Soccer Blog panel scores: Patrick Johnston 134, Mitch Phillips 118, Paul Radford 113, Mike Collett 105, Mark Meadows 99, Simon Evans 95, Kevin Fylan 91, Miles Evans 89, Neil Maidment 88, Asia Sports Desk 75, Julien Pretot 74, Martyn Herman 61, Justin Palmer 41, Sonia Oxley 31 (bonus point for getting predictions in early)

——————————————————————————————

Friday post: Some bumper Premier League matches this weekend but will that mean we’ll be seeing bumper points totals in our predictions competition?

United beware: City look ready to make a lot more noise

Rarely can a defeat, and such a heart-breaking one at that, have been greeted with so much enthusiasm by the losers as Manchester City’s 4-3 reverse at Old Trafford.

Sports professionals are forever banging on about “taking the positives” from setbacks but for everyone connected with City, their performance and the whole occasion on Sunday showed that they really will be a force to be reckoned with over the next few months and years.

Despite being shorn of several of their best players and going behind after two minutes, City hung on to United like a terrier with a mouthful of trouser.

Every time United shook them off with a goal, they came back with a tighter bite. Even when the champions were peppering their goal during a period of dominance in the second half, City stayed in the game.

They were felled by Michael Owen’s 96th-minute winner, sparking wild scenes on the touchline and some enjoyable jousting from the managers.

Current England rugby manager Martin Johnson has said that he felt sure England would win the 2003 World Cup final after seeing how Australia celebrated their semi-final win over New Zealand and United’s joy, even allowing for the dramatic nature of the finale, was a few notches up on anything seen in a derby win for decades.

“They seemed quite excitable at the end which shows you what this win means to them,” said Mark Hughes. “It was reminiscent of some of the scenes with Brian Kidd and Alex Ferguson in days gone by and I saw Gary Neville running on the pitch like a lunatic.”

Clever banners can’t hide Milan’s derby pain

Nowhere in the world can match the San Siro for the array of banners unfurled by fans.

Before kick off in Sunday’s derby, the Inter and Milan ends were transformed into huge colourful patchworks and throughout the game various slogans were unveiled, some funny, some rude and some downright mysterious.

“How can you represent Milan when your team has no Italian players?” read one Milan banner (despite the fact that Inter’s teenaged left back Davide Santon is Italian).

The Milan fans in the ‘Curva Sud’ were so wrapped up in unfurling their masterpieces that many of them failed to notice that Adriano used a arm to score Inter’s first before the Serie A leaders went on to win 2-1 and increase their advantage over their city rivals to 11 points.

It looked like some Rossoneri supporters had already given up their title hopes when they unveiled a huge banner saying (in English): “To be continued…”

No one was quite sure what that implied but there was no confusion over the best Inter sign.

Mourinho v Ranieri is a veritable grudge match

It’s hard to think of two coaches in the world with such an apparent dislike of one another as Inter’s Jose Mourinho and Juve’s Claudio Ranieri.

Even Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have got on better of late and the only coach to have real gripes with new Argentina boss Diego Maradona is Scotland no. 2 Terry Butcher.

The feud between Mourinho and Ranieri, which comes to the boil in Saturday’s match between Serie A leaders Inter and in-form Juve, originated at Chelsea where the Special One took over from the sacked Italian in 2004 and promptly went and won two Premier League titles.

The usually modest Ranieri feels he deserves more credit for building up the Chelsea team ahead of Mourinho’s arrival (Petr Cech and Arjen Robben for example) but the confident Portuguese is having none of it, saying Ranieri’s English at Chelsea was laughable and implying the 57-year-old is past his sell by date.

Their contrasting styles and the already strong rivalry between the two clubs promises fireworks this weekend, with Juve able to join Inter at the top with a win. ‘Grudge match’ is a horrid cliche, but just this once I think it applies.

Inter v Juve is actually known as the ‘Derby of Italy’ because they have battled against each other for the title so often.

The rivalry is fiercer than Inter v AC Milan in many respects. Remember, Inter were given the title when Juve were stripped of the scudetto and demoted in 2006. Inter then signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Patrick Vieira off their rivals to further infuriate fans of the Turin-based club.

White-knuckle ride for white-shirted Bolton, Fulham and Derby

One of the greatest things about Subbuteo, besides giving generations of kids endless table-topping fun, was the chance of studying the team colours chart.

Where else could you learn at a glance that your claret and blue squad could be either West Ham, Burnley or Aston Villa, or that Plymouth Argyle were the only team in the Football League to play in green shirts (as did amateur giants Hendon) and that Blackpool were unique for being the only team to play in tangerine.

I thought of that old chart for the first time in years this week as Bolton, Fulham and Derby County edged closer to relegation from the Premier League.

Forget about logos and sponsors names, as far as my generation is concerned all three teams play in identical kits — white shirts and black shorts — and they are on the brink of becoming the subject of a future pub quiz trivia question.

Q: What was unique about the relegation of Bolton, Fulham and Derby in 2008?

A: It was the first time three teams wearing identical colours were relegated together.

Derby are already doomed but if Bolton and Fulham join them — and that is far from certain as yet — it will be because they haven’t played well enough, not because of the colour of their shirts.