Brace for Haaland as City beat desperate derby rivals

It was Manchester City, but not as we knew them.

- By RICHARD JOLLYAT THE ETIHAD STADIUM

Or so the theory went, anyway. But for Manchester United, it was just the City they remembered. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, they had been destroyed in a derby in which both Phil Foden and Erling Haaland scored. So, too, in 2025: there can be evidence of City's decline in other games, in a league table that showed them in 16th at kickoff, but not in their latest demolition derby.

For United, history repeated itself. Second best in Manchester again, they were cut apart. For Ruben Amorim, there was a first glimpse of thousands of City fans turning their backs on the game to do the Poznan. If he could not see some of the United supporters, it was because the away end was emptying long before the final whistle. United conjured a late victory at the Etihad a month into Amorim's reign. There was never a danger of a repeat.

Instead, there was the familiar sound of Amorim insisting he will not alter a system that isn't working. “I am not going to change,” he declared. “When I want to change my philosophy, I will change. If not, you have to change the man,” said a manager with a mere 31 points from 31 games in charge. “It is not a record you should have in Manchester United,” Amorim admitted.