Man City get timely Manchester United boost from Erik ten Hag

The past few months have featured Manchester United's attempts to close the gap to Manchester City.

City are on course to finish above United in the table for the 11th year in succession and are fighting to win what would be their seventh Premier League title since their neighbours last lifted the trophy. Off the pitch, they have surpassed United in terms of revenue as their success has been met with an increasing global appeal from sponsors and audiences.

Having bought into United on Christmas Eve, Sir Jim Ratcliffe has set his sights on taking City's good ideas and staff in an effort to "knock them off their perch" and turn Manchester red again. From the flattering overtures to the football played by Pep Guardiola and his squad to appointing Omar Berrada to be their new CEO and realisation that a modern football club probably needs a sporting director who knows what they're doing, United could not have made it more obvious that City are streets ahead of them.

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Those words and actions have been enough for City to start treating United as a more serious rival, so it will have been comfort to many at the Etihad to hear Erik ten Hag's comments after the latest derby demolition job. Many saw the fact that City had more shots (27) than United did a share of the ball (26 per cent possession) as a sign of the gulf between the teams, but Ten Hag flatly rebutted that after talking about how close his team were to winning the game and bemoaning refereeing decisions that seemed absolutely understandable.

"I don’t think so, absolutely not," the manager said of the gulf between the