Manchester derby: will Round 9 Premier League clash see balance of power swing again?

MANCHESTER United go into Monday morning’s Manchester derby knowing full well that they aren’t the city’s best side and haven’t been for some time.

Tables turned: New order in Manchester derby

MANCHESTER United go into Monday morning’s Manchester derby knowing full well that they aren’t the city’s best side and haven’t been for some time.

City defender Aleksandar Kolarov says his side has been the top dog for “five or six years” while legendary United gloveman Peter Schmeichel this week admitted a shift in power in the north of England has been and gone.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side are the champions of England and competing with the big boys in the UEFA Champions League, a competition Louis van Gaal’s squad is watching it on television thanks to the miserable seventh-place finish last season.

It’s been six years since Sheikh Mansour and his oil money arrived at City, forever changing the dynamic of the rivalry, though in those early days, United, thanks largely in part to the brilliance of their king, Sir Alex Ferguson, were able to defend their castle.

Fergie knew the threat City, with their new-found wealth, posed, prompting him to sledge them as United’s “noisy neighbours” and “a small club with a small mentality”.

David Silva with Wayne Rooney.

The Sheikh might have been spending exorbitantly to lure the best players, but the Reds were still having the better of it on the field in some classic encounters.

The 2009-2010 season saw the 4-3 classic at Old Trafford, Michael Owen writing himself into United history with a 96th minute winner. Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes also scored late winners in the League Cup and Premier League for the Red Devils that campaign, much to City fans’ (which by no coincidence were growing in number by the day) dismay.

Michael Owen (R) scores the winning goal during Manchester derby.

Rooney’s amazing bicycle kick winner in the league at Old Trafford was the enduring image of the following season, but it wasn’t the most pertinent moment between the rivals.

Wayne Rooney’s famous bicycle kick.

City knocked their neighbours out of the FA Cup semi-finals on the way to claiming their first piece of silverware in 35 years.

The money continued to flow for City, while at Old Trafford, frustrated fans were told there was “no value in the market”.

But at Etihad Stadium, it wasn’t Wayne Bridge, Roque Santa Cruz and Jo anymore, but rather Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Yaya Toure strutting their stuff at the Etihad. The noisy neighbours were getting more boisterous, fuelled by self-belief they could compete, and indeed surpass, United.

That noise grew deafening 12 months later when Sergio Aguero popped up to win the 2011-2012 Premier League title with virtually the last kick of the season. The look on Phil Jones’s face at the Stadium of Light on the final day of the season when that goal went in showed just how big a hammer blow it was. City had come from eight points behind United at the beginning of March to steal the trophy from their biggest rivals on goal difference as well as inflicting a record 6-1 defeat on them earlier in the year.

Sergio Aguero’s arrival was a game changer.

Robin van Persie would prove to be the difference maker the following season, spurning City to join United from Arsenal before scoring a late winner at the Etihad and a boatload of goals as the Red Devils sent Fergie out on a winning note and reclaimed their title from the men in blue.

Order restored? Not quite.

Manchester United's Robin Van Persie scores the winner in 2012.

As has been so well documented, the ill-fated David Moyes era last season was a disaster and City feasted on the rotting carcass that was United. League losses became all too familiar for Red Devils fans, but 4-1 and 3-0 defeats to eventual champions City were especially hard to swallow.

As United continue the arduous rebuild under van Gaal, and undertake a spending spree not too dissimilar to City’s when the Sheikh took over, Manuel Pellegrini’s side is taking it to Chelsea at the top of the table, have one of the strongest squads in England and are reaping the financial rewards of Champions League football.

The boot is very much on the other foot. City, despite a mini-form slump over the past week, have won the title twice in the last three seasons, are settled and competing at the top level, while United is on the outside looking to break in, a fallen giant desperate to reclaim past glories.

It’s time for the Red Devils to be the noisy neighbours of this rivalry and take it to their more fancied opponents. If they defeat City at Old Trafford on Monday people will start listening again, in Manchester and beyond.

But a convincing loss will further consign them to the bottom of this feud.

As City fans know only too well, it can be an awfully long wait down there.

Originally published as Manchester derby: will Round 9 Premier League clash see balance of power swing again?