By Mike Collett
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – Manchester City closed in on their first top
flight title in 44 years by beating Manchester United 1-0 on Monday after doing what their rivals have done for years –
keeping their nerve when all seemed lost.
City captain Vincent Kompany scored the winner with a header from a corner
at the end of the first half to cap a remarkable turnaround in the title race as they moved top of the table on goal
difference with two games to play.
The win for Roberto Mancini’s team, who were never really threatened by a United
side that came looking for a point and left empty handed, capped a remarkable month for a City side displaying all the
hallmarks of their illustrious neighbours.
Premier League defeats by Swansea and Arsenal and a draw at Stoke looked
like derailing big-spending City’s title drive, with United winning eight successive games almost at will, but Mancini’s
determined players refused to give up.
United’s never-say-die attitude was at the heart of their 12 titles under Alex
Ferguson in the Premier League era, but the champions could find no way back in this match.
Kompany’s strike was the
only goal of a fraught, passionate and at times ragged and wild derby that distilled all the unpredictability of a remarkable
season into 90 minutes of a match that swung first the way of United and then City who finished the stronger and were
deserved winners.
Both teams have 83 points but City have moved back to the top of the table on goal difference and,
although they have the harder games left, Mancini’s side now hold all the cards.
Asked who were now favourites for
the title, Mancini once again told reporters: “United. They have the easier games, against Swansea and Sunderland, while we
have to play Newcastle United, who are going for the Champions League, and Queens Park Rangers who are going against
relegation.
“We are at the top now, but it can change after the next two games,” he added.
However, City’s
dashing Italian coach did concede that winning the title was actually a possibility for his side too, “yes, it is, that’s
true,” he smiled broadly.
MIRROR IMAGE
The match was almost a mirror image of the season, with United on top at
first before a period of City supremacy, United coming back and City finishing stronger at the end.
In the league,
United were the pacesetters for most of the first two months, before City led the race for five months until United regained
the lead in the middle of March.
While the final act in the drama is still to be played out in the next two weeks,
United could still finish on top of the pile for the 20th time in their history as City do have the trickier games to
play.
But, as it stands, Mancini’s side have the momentum to carry them all the way to a first top flight title since
1968.
They regained it on April 11 when Carlos Tevez, having made up with Mancini following their infamous falling out
in September when Tevez refused to warm up as a substitute for a Champions League match in Munich, was restored to the
starting lineup in the 4-0 win over West Bromwich Albion and scored.
City have since beaten Norwich City 6-1,
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 and now United while Ferguson’s side have dropped points to Wigan Athletic and Everton and
fallen back to second place for the first time since early March.
Ferguson set them up to play a holding 4-5-1
formation at the Etihad as he has so often done in away Champions League matches with Rooney as the lone striker.
The
tactic worked at first as United dominated the early stages, at least by holding City at bay, without either team creating
any real scoring chances.
UNITED UNRAVEL
But United began to unravel with Nani giving the ball away too easily
and the experienced campaigners Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs lacking any real influence.
City’s industrious midfield
of David Silva, Gareth Barry and Yaya Toure began to find chinks in United’s defence too with Sergio Aguero, watched by his
father-in-law Maradona, and fellow Argentine Tevez beginning to get a whiff of a goal.
The breakthrough came just
before halftime when Kompany out-jumped Chris Smalling to head powerfully past David de Gea.
Last season United’s
outstanding centre back Nemanja Vidic, who has been out since December with a cruciate ligament injury, was stopping attempts
like that. Those are the margins between success and failure.
Ferguson did pep up his attack in the second half when
he introduced Danny Welbeck for the ineffective Ji-sung Park, but Rooney had little impact and seemed to spend most of the
time arguing with the referee and showing his frustration with his team mates.
United finally put City under some
pressure late in the game but to no real damaging effect and the home side rode out the final minutes to complete a league
double over their rivals after their remarkable 6-1 win at Old Trafford in October.
They now seem well placed to
finish the roller-coaster ride of their season on a high as well.