Manchester City Power Toward EPL Title, Manchester United Attack Comes Up Short

The Premier League title is Manchester City's to lose. After beating Manchester United 1-0 in the derby to end all derbies at the Etihad, City are two wins away from their first championship since 1968.

That season, a United inspired by George Best won the European Cup to keep a hold of bragging rights. This time, the red half of Manchester will have no such consolation and face the very real prospect of ending the season humbled, looking for a place to hide.

If this was the game to define the title race, United deserve their fate.

Sir Alex Ferguson's curious and conservative selection was only partly responsible for a tepid performance that saw his team achieve not a single shot on target—an embarrassing feat they were saddled with for the first time in three years.

United were savaged in midfield, where City's Yaya Toure marauded like a man possessed and Gareth Barry put in the kind of endlessly neat, worker-bee shift that makes managers fall in love with him.

Ferguson has earned the benefit of our doubts, but few made sense of his tactics as the game ESPN coverage billed "the greatest in Premier League history" kicked off before a television audience spread across 212 territories and (somehow) estimated at 650 million according to the Daily Mail.

United's manager picked Park Ji-Sung and Chris Smalling despite the fact neither had started a league match since January. And by setting up with five across midfield, he left Wayne Rooney marooned in attack and diluted his best player's influence when he needed him most.

How ironic that Sir Alex's counterpart Roberto Mancini, so often criticized for tactical negativity himself, sent out a team bent on attack.

Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez combined up top, with Samir Nasri offering himself as a willing accomplice at every opportunity.

Yes, City needed to win and United would have taken a 0-0 draw, but Ferguson's teams have not achieved their prolific success by playing with caution during his 25 years at the club. It's just not "the United way."

United were treading water during the first half, and when Vincent Kompany evaded the attentions of both Smalling and Rio Ferdinand to head home from a corner, City had a lead they deserved.

What's more, the tone of a tight and tense contest was set.

Ferguson tried to change it, introducing Danny Welbeck, Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia in the second half. Still, United were unable to force the issue against City's resolute defense.

Only Paul Scholes emerged with credit from midfield, an area in which it's never been clearer Ferguson must reinforce next season.

But to blame everything on tactics is as unfair on Ferguson as it is on Mancini's City.

City were stronger and bolder to a man, and seized their moment as their long-suffering fans prayed they might. Though they started nervously, Mancini's men grew into the occasion and left the field having experienced the kind of clutch victory that all too often breeds long-term success.

City's performance was an answer to those who thought they couldn't handle the intensity. It was a show of defiance to the many who saw their midseason slump as an inevitable capitulation.

And if Mancini leads them to the title, it could yet go down in history as the moment the red tide finally turned blue.

Meanwhile, it's Ferguson's usually unflappable trophy collectors who have shown themselves vulnerable. With the title in their grasp, United lost to Wigan, then allowed Everton to rescue a 4-4 draw at Old Trafford.

And now this.

"It was a damaging result," Ferguson told reporters Monday night, via BBC. "They are in the driving seat and we are up against it."

United's 70-year-old manager is not short on fight—as he showed in a touchline confrontation with Mancini during the second half—but on the biggest night of their season, too many of his players failed to put on the gloves for him.

Whether they might have been more inclined playing to United's attacking traditions is a question that will long be debated.

But not by City fans.

The blue half of Manchester has waited a long time for this moment, and it's only right they should celebrate it wholeheartedly and with the enthusiasm of famed revelers Liam Gallagher and Diego Maradona (both of whom were in attendance at the Etihad on Monday).

The pessimists amongst them will tell you they fully expect City to lose at Newcastle and throw it all away now. Even if that happens, nobody can take away the night blue toppled red when the stakes were highest.

If it doesn't and City bring home the Premier League title, the blue moon will emphatically have risen.

And Manchester's great football rivalry will enter into a bold new era of parity that just a decade ago was unthinkable.

There's only so much you can buy in football. Winning things takes nerve.