Manchester derbies hardly need any more flaming than they inherently bring, but the fact that Manchester City had won five of the last six meetings between the clubs added a certain intensity to the pre-match build-up. David has turned Goliath.

Given their recent form, however, the pressure rested on both teams' shoulders. Having started the season brilliantly, Man City's form had crumbled in the weeks leading up to Sunday's meeting. Having been two goals up, Manuel Pellegrini's team could only manage a draw in the Champions League against CSKA Moscow. That was followed up with a Premier League defeat to West Ham United and being knocked out of the Capital One Cup by Newcastle United.

Had Man City lost this game it would have been Pellegrini's first back-to-back Premier League defeats.

Manchester United would have taken some comfort from the way they fought to claw a point from their league game against Chelsea a week earlier, but Louis van Gaal still found his team languishing in eighth going into the derby, having picked up just seven points from the past five games.

Both teams found themselves simultaneously beset by injuries and buoyed by returning players. Wayne Rooney was again eligible for Man Utd, having served his three-match ban for a sending-off against West Ham, but Van Gaal found himself desperately short in the centre of defence - his bench having nothing in the way of adequate cover for the starting partnership of Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo.

As a side note: Man Utd's starting 11 was estimated to have cost them £241 million, the most expensive lineup ever constructed for a Premier League game.

Man City were without the talismanic David Silva, injured during the midweek Newcastle game, and Frank Lampard was still recovering from a thigh problem picked up against Tottenham two weeks earlier. Better news was the inclusion of Samir Nasri, on the bench after an extended layoff that saw him miss eight games. Nasri replaced the injured Silva in midweek.

The match provided a great opportunity for both teams to boost their morale. Man City needed to get back to winning ways to keep pace with a Chelsea team that started the day nine points ahead of them in the league. Man Utd were looking to build on the point earned against Chelsea and prove (to themselves and others) that they are capable of consistently challenging the league's best.

Absent Silva is desperately missed

With Silva injured, Jesus Navas deputised on the right wing and Stefan Jovetic joined Sergio Aguero at the head of attack at the expense of Edin Dzeko. The thinking makes basic sense. Unlike Silva, Navas prefers to hug the touchline, beat his full-back and deliver crosses into the box - and he's extremely adept at doing exactly that.

However, without Silva (and with Nasri still not 100%) Man City lose their ability to dribble inside from the flanks in the final third. Silva is able to make his way nimbly along the outer edges of the opposition's box and, in doing so, pulls defenders with him which makes space nearer to goal for Aguero and Dzeko to exploit.

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James Milner, playing on the left on Sunday, also prefers to stay out wide when playing on the wing. Jovetic, then, due to his superior movement and passing in comparison to Dzeko, was brought in to try to make up for the loss of Silva. Jovetic was very much positioned in the number 10 role in the first half, attempting to find the space between Man Utd's defence and midfield, and create chances for the forward Aguero and the onrushing Yaya Toure.

The problem, however, was that things were all too predictable. Those very gaps that Jovetic was trying to operate in are the exact ones filled by Daley Blind - the midfielder doing a stunning job of intelligently switching his focus between Jovetic and Toure depending on which one presented the most danger at the given moment. Marouane Fellaini was given the job of marking whoever Blind was not.

Predictable, too, was Man City's movement down the wings. Jovetic by no means had a bad game, but his impact was limited by Man Utd's positional awareness and this made it difficult for the attacking wingers to find an outlet for those moments where they couldn't beat their full-back markers.

Luke Shaw in Man Utd's left full-back role, and Antonio Valencia on the right, were content to shuffle Navas and Milner out as wide as possible and push them to the corner flags. From here they couldn't find a pass inside and it was difficult to provide a cross of any accuracy.

Considering the fact that Shaw likes to get forward so often, it stands as testament to the 19-year-old's ability that he was so rarely caught off guard by the lightning-quick Navas. Prior to the game fears were raised that Navas would take advantage of Shaw's attacking nature and consistently find space behind him down the flank, but that didn't happen. Credit to Shaw's awareness and maturity in such circumstances.

Similar credit must go to Valencia, who is in no way a natural fit at right full-back. While the goal eventually came from an area under his charge, the Ecuadorian can hold his head high.

Without Silva available to pick a pass and drift into dangerous positions, it's worrying for Man City to see just how static they can look in the final third against a team focused on simply getting the basics of defending right.

Rooney, Blind and Fellaini perform admirably with little help from wings

Adnan Januzaj and Angel Di Maria, operating on Man Utd's right and left wing, respectively, were amongst the biggest disappointments of the day. In the 43 minutes that he played, Januzaj attempted nine passes and connected on just six.

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Di Maria's success rate of 28 passes from 43 attempts over 90 minutes is better, but he only managed to connect with one pass into Man City's box. The performance of Di Maria, in particular, is cause for concern given the otherwise positive impact that he has had since joining this season. Van Gaal will be hoping it was a one-off.

The central midfield pairing of Rooney and Fellaini, with Blind playing in the holding role behind them, put in a sterling combined effort in the absence of the wingers' presence. In a similar role to that played by Juan Mata in the game against Chelsea a week before, Rooney showed great authority in his role as deep-layer creator - giving Fellaini licence to get forward more often and use his bigger frame to attempt to put Man City's centre-backs under pressure.

Rooney certainly found it more difficult to get involved during the first half, however, Man City's Fernando and Toure taking turns to hound him into getting rid of the ball quickly. This prevented Fellaini the time to get upfield, limiting Rooney's passing options and forcing him to either play safe back to Blind or launch hopeful long balls forward to Robin van Persie or the lacklustre wingers.

It will be interesting to see how much more we see of Man Utd in a 4-1-4-1 formation. Before Smalling's sending-off in the 38th minute the formation's tendency to bring the midfield and defensive lines closer together (exaggerated by Blind's presence between them) worked to stifle Man City's threat through the middle - the resulting wing play predictable and easily choked.

Such a formation is not conducive to goal scoring, though, and Man Utd's embarrassment of riches in attacking areas can't be fully utilised within such a system.

It may sound like blasphemy to Man Utd fans, but Van Gaal might have entered the game hoping for a draw.

Smalling sending off changes game completely

This was a game to forget for Smalling, both of his yellow cards coming from play that was as clumsy as it was mindboggling.

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For the first, given for obstructing the kick of Joe Hart, he should have been rushing back to get back into his position in defence. For the second, the bundling of Milner to the ground, he should have taken up a better starting position to prevent the (not especially quick) Man City midfielder from beating him so easily.

The sending-off forced Michael Carrick to come on in place of Januzaj, the central midfielder played out of position in the middle of defence. Rooney then went to the left wing, Di Maria to the right and Blind/Fellaini took up central midfield positions. Playing such an uncomfortable looking 10 from 38 minutes onwards was never going to be easy for Man Utd.

In the second half Man City raised the tempo drastically, moving the ball around with greater urgency in an attempt to exhaust their understaffed opposition. To facilitate this ball movement they worked to make the pitch as big as possible, stretching their wingers even wider and dropping Toure slightly deeper in an effort to draw Man Utd's players towards him and force them to cover a greater area.

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Rojo's injury on 56 minutes only made things worse for Man Utd, the Argentinean replaced by 19 year-old Patrick McNair. This was McNair's third Premier League appearance.

Man City's eventual goal didn't come from a McNair error, but the teenager was certainly part of a wider breakdown of communication and positioning. With Man City using the extra space, the ball was played out to the right hand side. Man Utd's players overloaded on this side defensively, committing even more men due to Milner coming inside and abandoning his position on the left.

This caused Valencia to move infield, with Di Maria covering for him on the right side on the Man Utd box. With Fellaini trailing Milner, the ball was played centrally to Toure, who flicked a delicate through-ball in front of the overlapping Gael Clichy (playing due to Aleksander Kolarov injuring himself during the warm up).

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It was Di Maria's job to cut out this passing lane, but he was caught off guard and didn't seem to be aware of Clichy's run until it was too late. Clichy then cut a fine pass inside to Aguero, who reacted far quicker than McNair, and a neat finish resulted in the match's only goal.

Aguero glued himself to McNair from the second the defender came into the game, clearly identifying him as the weak link and softest target.

Man Utd dominate the closing moments

Following their 63rd-minute goal, Man City changed approach dramatically and attempted to slow play down in a bid to control the final quarter of the game. In the five minutes following the goal, passes between defenders rose, as did the amount of time spent delaying over the taking of goal kicks, throw-ins and free kicks.

This seemed to give Man Utd optimism, and the change in their own play was equally as drastic. Di Maria finally got more involved in the action, his improvement in form coming in part from the substitution of Milner for Nasri. Nasri is not as stringent as Milner in his defensive duties and often found himself either behind Di Maria or not close enough to make a tackle.

With possession and more space to run into, Di Maria found much greater success at moving the ball forward but the quality of his passes was still lacking. Much credit must go to Rooney for providing those initial passes to the Argentinean over the final 15 minutes, the captain coming into his own as the match wore on - although he still relied too heavily on hopeful long balls forward.

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Getting the ball into dangerous shooting positions was Man Utd's problem and they could only register one shot on target from six attempts in the final 20 minutes.

Man City, almost unbelievably, invited the pressure to continue. The substitution of Aguero for Fernandinho on 84 minutes highlighted Pellegrini's refusal to push his team to defend higher up the pitch. The Brazilian's involvement only resulted in Man Utd pushing their full-backs and Fellaini even further forward now that the Aguero threat had passed.

The game was won by Man City, but they looked like a shadow of the team that won the league last season. Pellegrini and his players might point to the Milner shot that hit the woodwork and no less than three penalty claims (two of which were legitimate) as evidence of their superiority, but the fact is that they were unable to comfortably contain a 10-man team for 45 minutes.

Man City finished the game in third place in the league, six points adrift from Chelsea and two back from Southampton.

The defeat leaves Man Utd on 13 points in 10th, their lowest points total after 10 games for 28 years.