Manchester United-Manchester City: Owen Says 'Welcome to the Red Side of Town'

It would not be a stretch of the imagination to say Old Trafford is currently a footballing utopia for the millions of Manchester United fans across the world.

In one of the most highly anticipated, hotly disputed, evenly matched, incredibly dramatic Manchester derbies in decades, none other than Michael Owen stepped up in the 96th minute to hit the most dramatic of late winners to give United the bragging rights in a 4-3 victory Saturday.

Before the big game, the blue poster with the famous words of "Welcome to Manchester" accompanied by that picture of the ex-Old Trafford hero Carlos Tevez sparked Sparky (Mark Hughes) and Sir Alex Ferguson into their usual war of words.

It was the perfect setup to what pundits said was poised to be one of the most evenly contested derbies in recent decades.

And in the highly anticipated game itself, Manchester United were set up for the perfect game when Wayne Rooney danced through Kolo Toure and Joleon Lescott to slot past Shay Given and give the home side a brilliant 1-0 lead with just two minutes on the clock.

It was a goal that emphasised the defensive frailties of Manchester City, as the Blues' defence just looked like money splashed all over the place.

A lack of communication and understanding between right-back Micah Richards and his £16m and £24m teammates in the centre of defence highlighted the need for these Manchester City players to "gel as a team" quickly if they are to achieve success.

All was looking good for United; they seemed slightly the better team, were looking comfortable in possession, and were causing City quite a few more problems.

But then in the 16th minute came the moment in which Ben Foster showed his true colours.

The ball came to Foster just outside of his area, and he attempted to turn inside and pick the ball up. Unfortunately, this allowed Tevez to nick the ball away from him on the left-hand side of the area and pass to the unmarked Gareth Barry, who had the simple task of slotting the ball into an empty net to level the scores at 1-1.

It was a mistake of indecisiveness that showed exactly why he is not yet ready for an England call-up. Imagine Foster being that indecisive in a World Cup quarterfinal against Brazil? England would stand no chance.

And in the build up to the goal, Anderson showed why he has not yet stepped up to the plate at Manchester United.

The young Brazilian was standing right next to Barry in the build up, and his late reactions and lack of effort allowed the England star to slot home completely unmarked.

Throughout the game, there was one word which completely epitomised Anderson: slack. Slack defending, slack passing, slack shooting, slack heading, and slack in his efforts to win the ball as he needlessly gave away free kicks and unnecessarily got booked.

After the break, United set the tone for what would become one of the greatest second-half periods in the history of Mancunian derbies.

The sometimes underrated Darren Fletcher proved why he is a vital asset to the Red Devils, this time not by making superb tackles and brilliant passes, but by heading home a looping Ryan Giggs cross three minutes after the interval, giving United a precious 2-1 lead.

But this lead would be short-lived. Craig Bellamy scored the goal of the game, a stunning curling effort into the top left corner from 25 yards, to show there's more attackers in this Manchester City team than just the big money summer signings of Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz.

This goal was against the run of play, and this run of play stayed with United despite conceding.

The Red Devils were urged to attack and attack by all in red inside Old Trafford, and with just ten minutes remaining the 70,000 home fans got what they so desperately wanted, when Fletcher cemented his already confirmed place as a United hero, heading home a free kick from Ryan Giggs, who was majestic down the left wing as he teased and toiled with Micah Richards.

The hosts were 3-2 up and the prayers of all the players, coaches and fans of Manchester United Football Club were that the Reds could just hold on until the end of the game, and claim a fantastic yet dramatic victory.

Little did all those players, coaches and fans know that their centre-back Rio Ferdinand had other ideas with minutes until the final whistle, as the England international lazily gave the ball away to City, with Craig Bellamy saying thank you very much before slotting past Foster and equalising for the visitors.

Drama galore at Old Trafford, with this incredible derby being a footballing utopia for the neutral spectator.

But the drama didn't stop there.

Two whole minutes were gone past the allocated four minutes of injury time. Seventy thousand United fans had given up hope of three points and seemed condemned to just the one.

The last rallying cries for a desperate attempt on goal were fading, they all thought their time would be up.

That was until, in the very, very last dying moments, the legendary Giggs found the new summer signing who had one last chance to give Manchester United an unbelievable, virtually impossible late, late winner.

The lad, formerly of Liverpool, rose high to the occasion, making time stand still for a moment, before slotting the ball...past Shay Given and into the back of the net! The last meaningful kick of the game saw Manchester United beat Manchester City 4-3 at the "Threatre of Dreams," otherwise now known to die-hard Reds as their utopia.

St. Sir Michael Owen, now of Manchester, had done what he came on to do, what he was signed to do, and what United fans only ever prayed he could do.

He sent out a statement to Manchester City: Welcome to the red side of town.