Community Shield: City Left Red-Faced by United Dominance.

The build-up to this year's Community Shield clash at Wembley had a lot more spice than usual. Could the petro dollar fueled Manchester City, commonly known as the 'noisy neighbours' these days, escape from the shadow of their dominant city rivals and set-down a marker for the season?

City fans have been 'bigging it up' for some time, predicting that they will overtake Utd and win the title this season. Optimism is the opium of the supporting masses, especially pre-season, so who could blame them? Had Fergie done enough in the transfer market to ensure his team would dominate or was his failure to land (so far) a dominant midfield player going to come back to haunt him?

Would Fergie's indomitable spirit, which he has instilled in team after team he has created over the past 25 years, come to the fore yet again or would City show that they have finally 'arrived' as a major threat to the dominance of the red half of Manchester. That was the question on most people's lips as an expectant global audience tuned into the showcase kick-off to the 2011-2012 season.

And by the time the final whistle blew nobody (but nobody) was left in any doubt as to the answer!

Utd flew out of the blocks. Leaner, keener and quicker than City in every area they proceeded to dominate the opening half and as the half wore on I could see Fergie becoming more and more agitated on the touchline.

Let's face it, the CS is not regarded as major prize and as Fergie said himself prior to kick-of he was more interested in having a decent test before the real action begins so his players would hit the ground running. His irritation was born out of the realisation that his team were getting nothing of the sort. And it was about then, 30 or so minutes into the game that he sent the word out: "Let this lot score a couple of goals so we will at least have a contest in the 2nd half."

Ferdinand, Vidic and De Gea got their heads together and duly obliged. It was a brave attempt to obscure the obvious but they just fell short of hiding Fergie's intention while letting-in a couple of soft goals before the break.

Not satisfied with the challenge at hand, Fergie decided to replace the best centre-half partnership in Europe with Jones and Evans at half-time, while also introducing Cleverly for Carrick. He looked relaxed and satisfied as he took his place on the bench for the 2nd half, seemingly happy that he at last had a contest on his hands.

But, and it doesn't happen often, he was wrong. The 2nd half was even more one sided than the first. A dominant Utd poured forward in wave after wave of attack. Smalling latched onto a sublime Young free-kick effectively saying to Lescott: "Anything you can do I can do better", and shortly afterwards came an early contender for goal of the season. The combined wizardry of Rooney, Cleverly and, ultimately, Nani cut the City defence to ribbons as Nani clipped the ball over Hart for a exquisite finish to an outstanding move.

City looked shell-shocked and shattered and when Evra was replaced by Rafael Utd's line-up assumed the average age of just 22 years old. City dug-in desperately as Utd continued to dominate. By now Balotelli had departed in yet another strop, heading for the tunnel as soon as he was substituted. Dzeko, despite the goal gifted to him in the 1st half, continued to belie his lofty transfer fee, something which is becoming a worrying trend for Mancini.

As City dug deep penalties beckoned. But haven't City learnt anything from playing Utd in the past two seasons? Do late goals and 'never say die' not register on the radar of overpaid mercenaries?

Obviously not! In injury time a rare City attack was cleared upfield by Rooney. Kompany, City's best defender (?) made a hash of his interception as Nani pounced, raced clear, and rounded Hart to stroke home a much deserved winner.

As Utd celebrated this relatively minor prize you could tell what the players were thinking. It wasn't about the trophy at hand but about the way they had completely dominated and humiliated the 'noisy neighbours'. If Utd had won by 3 or 4 goals it would not have flattered them in the slightest and it's set a clear marker for the season ahead.

Smalling was excellent playing at right back while Jones and Evans were superb in the 2nd half. Cleverly has put down a big marker in recent games and looks like a player with a big future ahead of him. Young did well, Anderson pinged passes around at leisure and Welbeck, just called into the England squad, showed us all why that was while Rooney and the ubiquitous Nani were inspirational. 

On the City side few could hold their head high.

City to win the EPL this season? No chance. It was a case of a completely bonded, perfectly balanced team against a disjointed band of mercenaries and there was, and always will be, only one winner.

The Sheikh was left red-faced, embarrassed by the outcome of his outpouring of mega millions and maybe, just maybe, has realized that money can buy you a team but at the end of the day it can't actually buy you a "team". 

Welcome to Manchester Sheikh Mansour! Your team still live in the shadow of greatness and, on today's evidence, I don't see that changing anytime soon.