Premier League Hangover: First Blood to Guardiola in Manchester Turf Wars

Somehow the first Manchester Clasico just about lived up to the hype. For it to have justified fully a tsunami of coverage and a billing as both the Premier League’s richest and most watched game ever, it would have needed to eclipse the 1970 World Cup final between Brazil and Italy—only with both sides being Brazil. 

It was a little short of that but still good enough to sate gargantuan appetites and expectations from New York to Nairobi, Baghdad to Barnsley.

In October last year, the same two sides played out a goalless draw, managing just a solitary shot on target apiece. It is still available on prescription for insomniacs.

Only Jose Mourinho a curmudgeon of the highest order would have failed to have fallen at least a little in love with a contest of contrasting styles and egos that fluctuated between Manchester City trying to crack a nut by coaxing it out of its shell, to Manchester United taking a sledgehammer to it.

Pep Guardiola might hate himself for it, but he will have—or at least should have—enjoyed City’s stoic second-half display as much as he did their sublime first. Aleksandar Kolarov is still looking for a tooth lost in the battle; Marouane Fellaini is probably wearing it around his neck.

The only thing #MCFC lost at Old Trafford today (