Perfect Result Eases Pressure as Man City Get Back to Winning Ways

ETIHAD STADIUM, Manchester — The pressure was building on Manuel Pellegrini this week. Not from inside the Manchester City boardroom—he’s held in very high regard there—but across the media and certain sections of the fans, who have been somewhat disillusioned by City’s poor start to the season.

A win against Manchester United was imperative for Pellegrini, and he got it, but it was a far from convincing display. 

Sergio Aguero—so often the difference in tight games—scored just after the hour mark, and City clung on to their 1-0 lead against the 10 men of United. The visitors, who looked dead and buried when Aguero smashed home from close range, had chances in the closing stages to snatch an unlikely point. But City held on to reduce Chelsea’s lead at the top to six points.

It was a somewhat worrying finish to game for City, but the three points were all that mattered. This was City's fourth consecutive win over United in the league—the first time that's happened since 1970.

The home side’s superiority for an hour of this match was clear. They dominated possession, scored a wonderfully worked goal and had three clear penalty appeals turned down. The second, a foul by Marcos Rojo on Yaya Toure just before half-time, was blatant and should have seen the defender sent off since he was the last man.

By then, United were already down to 10 men after Chris Smalling’s sending off for two of the stupidest bookings you’re likely to see: the first for blocking Joe Hart’s attempted punt down field, the second for a badly mistimed challenge on James Milner, who had gone past him too easily down the left.

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Pellegrini in press conference says penalty decisions were "unbelievable" and "it's still in your mind" despite winning

— Daniel Taylor (@DTguardian) November 2, 2014"

With the man advantage, City looked set to assert further dominance, and they did early in the second half. They had been getting closer and closer to scoring as the match wore on, with United looking increasingly unstable at the back. Toure produced a wonderful through ball to Gael Clichy, who delivered an inch-perfect cross to Aguero. The Argentinian finished perfectly to break the deadlock.

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MATCH SHOT: @aguerosergiokun celebrates scoring the opening goal in the derby. #cityvunited #mcfc pic.twitter.com/snbdpmxYqI

— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) November 2, 2014"

That should have signalled a City onslaught, yet they took their foot off the gas and allowed United a route back into the game. Suddenly, there was tension, as United looked the more likely to score.

Wayne Rooney produced a wonderful run, reminiscent of the kind of magic he used to produce in 2004, but he inexplicably decided against pulling the trigger. Angel Di Maria had a shot impressively saved by Hart and Marouane Fellaini headed over the bar from close range.

It was a tense finish, but Pellegrini's men showed great character to deliver three valuable points and halt their poor run of form.

Much of the talk going into the game surrounded Angel Di Maria, United’s big-money signing from Real Madrid. He has shown some excellent moments already in his short time as a Premier League player, but he was kept quiet for the most part Sunday. When he did find himself in dangerous positions, his delivery repeatedly let him down.

A nervousness spread around the ground when it was announced that Aleksandar Kolarov had injured his thigh in the warm-up and Clichy would replace him, but the Frenchman was magnificent for much of the match. He added impetus to City's attacks and, together with James Milner, offered defensive solidity down the left.

Jon Super/Associated Press

Toure gave his best display of the season and had a couple of late chances to add a goal to his much-improved performance. Pellegrini knows that he needs the Ivorian at his very best if City are to repeat or improve upon the success of their last campaign. This wasn’t vintage Toure, but it was a big step in the right direction.

Just six wins in City's last 14 matches going into this one caused talk of a crisis to rear its head. Although their performance was far from convincing, the victory gives Pellegrini's side a huge boost ahead of Wednesday’s crucial match against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League.

Afterwards, the relief for Pellegrini was clear, as he focused on the three points rather than his team's performance:

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I think that first of all the most important thing is to win the derby. During the match I think we played very, very well, we scored a goal, [for] different reasons we dropped a little bit more than we [needed], we lost the high possession of the ball [more than] we had before that.

It is normal in a derby but before that we had clear chances to score. It is unbelievable we didn’t get a penalty against Yaya Toure, that is a penalty and a sending off.

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City now need three points at home against CSKA on Wednesday—and they hope Bayern Munich can do the same against Roma—to get their Champions League campaign back on track. The picture on Wednesday could look dramatically different from the "crisis" talk going on after the defeat to Newcastle just four days ago.

For United, Louis van Gaal has now overseen their worst start to a season in 28 years.

Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and will be following the club from a Manchester base throughout the 2014-15 season. All quotes were obtained first-hand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter: @RobPollard.