Manchester United thrashing should not hide stark Man City truth about the rest of the season

The pre-match nerves all proved to be unfounded as Manchester City swept old rivals Manchester United aside with a minimum of fuss. The scenes at the Etihad Stadium just before the final whistle, with fans shouting “Ole!” as their Blue heroes taunted the exhausted Red bull, and a gleeful Poznan bounced its way around almost the entire ground, were in stark contrast to the pronouncements of gloom that had preceded the game.

That was partly down to United’s knack of messing up the odds and pulling off a result across town - they had previously won four of the six Etihad meetings between the two clubs in the Pep Guardiola era. It was fuelled by Liverpool’s win 24 hours earlier, which had considerably cranked up the pressure for three points on a team that had not been at its best for three or four weeks - and which had been brutally exposed by Harry Kane and Tottenham in their previous home game.

Having conquered that rash of pessimism, City must now avoid soaring too far the other way, thinking that if fourth-placed United - who had the longest unbeaten run in the Premier League until Sunday - can be despatched with such consummate ease, then who else is able to stand in the Blues’ way - apart from Liverpool on April 10, of course?

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It is a false premise. City were excellent on Sunday, but in equal parts, United were abysmal. In fact, in terms of resistance, organisation and goal threat they gave the Blues far fewer problems than Championship bottom dogs Peterborough had done in the FA Cup five days earlier. Without taking anything away from City, the second half was astoundingly easy for City, who found only token fight from snarling Scott McTominay as they ran at the back four