History weighs on United

English Premier League/ Manchester United 1 Manchester City 2: Manchester United are so unaccustomed to losing on their own ground that the first thing to digest when it happens is the collective sense of shock.

Manchester City had not won here since 1974 and, when everything is taken into consideration, Alex Ferguson and his players will feel only regret and aching disappointment as they reflect on the 150th Mancunian derby, on the club's own "Remembrance Day", and on their failure to produce a performance fitting for the occasion.

There are plenty of reasons why United had their noses bloodied and it would be particularly unfair on City to argue that Cristiano Ronaldo and Rio Ferdinand, to name but two, had forgotten how to pass the ball because of the emotion enveloping Old Trafford as it marked the 50th anniversary of the Munich disaster.

There is a strong argument, however, that the grandeur of the occasion had an adverse collective effect on Ferguson's men, which was strange because it would have been perfectly reasonable beforehand to imagine they would pull on their retro kit, look around Old Trafford as all the complimentary red and white scarves were thrust to the skies, and use it as a form of motivation. Instead, the events of history seemed to weigh down each player as if they were lugging around a sackload of bricks.

City, in stark contrast, were magnificent, wearing a 1950s-style kit, but playing with 1970s verve. Some of Sven Goran Eriksson's players had been hiding from the ball in recent weeks, but two of the worst culprits, Stephen Ireland and Martin Petrov, could not get enough of it yesterday.

Micah Richards played as though affronted to have been left out of Fabio Capello's first England side for the match against Switzerland, and Darius Vassell has redeemed himself from a position where he has been in danger of getting what is known at City as "the Richard Edghill treatment".

Vassell's goal may not be remembered as fondly as Denis Law's back-heel in 1974 which virtually confirmed United's relegation to the old Second Division, but, just as then, there may be heavy consequences for City's opponents.

United, with one point from two games, will be five points behind the leaders if Arsenal beat Blackburn Rovers at the Emirates Stadium tonight.

It was certainly perplexing to see a centre half of Nemanja Vidic's quality looking so hesitant. Ferdinand will wince when he reflects on the frequency with which he gave away the ball, and it is necessary to go back to Ronaldo's first season to remember the last time he was so ineffectual at Old Trafford.

The Portuguese winger has made a routine of winning man-of-the-match awards, but the honour here was contested by half a dozen of the players in blue, with Ireland probably edging it ahead of Dietmar Hamann and Richard Dunne.

Perhaps in hindsight Ferguson was wrong to play his most devastating attacker in a central role as he tried to compensate for the absence of Wayne Rooney.

Nani and Ryan Giggs flickered only sporadically and, with little width or penetration, Dunne and Richards coped admirably until the substitute Michael Carrick swapped passes with Paul Scholes in stoppage-time and side-footed a shot past the City goalkeeper, Joe Hart.

By that stage it was too little too late. City had opened the scoring after a move from one end of the pitch to the other, via the debutant Benjani Mwaruwari, Petrov and Ireland, culminating in Vassell beating Edwin van der Sar at the second attempt.

The first had actually been going wide, but Van der Sar was disorientated after saving at Ireland's feet.

The entire United defence, in fact, seemed to have lost its bearings and it was the same again, on the verge of half-time, when Benjani glanced in Petrov's cross for his first goal since arriving from Portsmouth.

A United onslaught might have been anticipated throughout the second half, but it failed to materialise and, ultimately, Carrick's goal was no more irritating to Eriksson's players than a bothersome fly.

All of which must be deeply worrying for Ferguson. In the vernacular of the sport the champions are experiencing the "blip", but the evidence of the past few seasons is that there is no allowance for this kind of carelessness in the modern-day title race.

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