Changing Times In Manchester As City Beat United

Manchester City are today top of the Premiership with a 100% record after three matches, while Manchester United are in the bottom five. That is the strange state of affairs after Sven Goran Eriksson's side withstood a barrage of pressure to edge a 1-0 victory at a jubilent City of Manchester stadium.

Eriksson's new look side had defeated West Ham and Derby in their opening two matches of the season, but they started this afternoon looking like a team of strangers as United dominated in terms of possession at least.



However, Sir Alex Ferguson's, who had started the season with two draws, lacked the cutting edge with their own new-look side including Nani, Owen Hargreaves and Carlos Tevez in the absence of the injured Wayne Rooney and suspended Cristiano Ronaldo.

They were made to pay for their failure to be decisive in attack as out of the blue Geovanni, who famously scored against United when at Benfica, struck on 35 minutes from just outside the box. His effort took a slight deflection of Nemanja Vidic, who had turned his back to the ball, and it curved the shot around Edwin van der Sar.

United then continued to dominate, but ironically were frustrated by Peter Schmeichel's son Kasper in City's goal, although the youngster was not as tested as much as the visitors would have hoped given their domination, but they could not manage to put the ball in the back of the net despite all of their pretty football.

The star of the show was not Schmeichal but young defender Micah Richards, who has previously interested Manchester United and today produced one of the best defensive performances from a teenager in recent times.

It was Richards that came to the rescue of Schmeichel in the closing minutes of the first half as the keeper spilled a routine effort, but the youngster was at hand to clear the ball away with an instinctive and brave lunge.

Vidic, who would likely have got a telling off from his manager at half time, almost made ammends at the start of the second half, but the defender was denied by the cross bar as frustrations continued for United, who did everything but score.

United pressed and pressed and in stoppage time it looked as it Tevez had stolen a precious point, but he was unable to react quick enough at the far post and headed a cross into the side netting from just one yard out. It capped what was a frustrating afternoon for the Argentine, who will have better days in his United career.

Many thought that Tevez, who earlier missed the target by inches, had scored a dramatic equaliser, including Ferguson who was just about to set off on wild celebrations before he realised the ball had not settled in the back of the net.

Manchester United have now made their worst start to a season in 15 years and will be under intense pressure to get a result at home to Tottenham in a weeks time.

City on the other hand will now have massive expectations of what is to come this season as Eriksson seems to have worked instant miracles with three wins on the spin with no goals conceded. Amazing!