Source: Daily_Mail
MARTIN SAMUEL on the Manchester derby: Cheer up Sparky, the gap is shrinking
It will not feel like a victory of any kind on Monday morning. For Manchester City, the pain of defeat at Old Trafford will be every bit as raw as it was on Sunday afternoon, when Michael Owen's goal in the sixth minute of injury time brought one of the greatest Manchester derby games of all to its awesome, yet familiar, conclusion.
The team in red took the points and their followers spilled, gloating, into the streets. Those in blue were left to steel themselves for another long winter of mockery and denigration, considering that they will have to wait until spring for the return fixture.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, set the ball rolling, metaphorically dismissing City as nothing more than noisy neighbours, a petty irritation to be ignored.
'You just have to turn the television up,' he sneered.
Yet, that is far from the whole story. It is not even the half of it. When the dust has settled, City can look back on September 20, 2009, as a milestone in their modern evolution.
It was the day they successfully insisted on being taken seriously by the club who have set the benchmark in English football since the formation of the Premier League.
Beating Arsenal last week was significant, but Arsenal have not won the League in five seasons.
Manchester United are the team against which all pretenders are judged and in the build-up to this match it appeared as if City's challenge was viewed with something between contempt and wry amusement. No more.
The better team still won at Old Trafford on Sunday, but City's performance demanded respect. They have won here in recent years, but it has always been in the manner of the underdog, raising their game to meet the occasion.
On Sunday they lost, but as equals. Do not be fooled by Manchester United's domination of the second half. United can safely expect to dominate every game at home, regardless of the opposition.
The fact that Manchester City drew level after going behind on three occasions, the fact that Craig Bellamy scored the two best goals of the game, the fact that it took United until 16 seconds from the final whistle to put the result beyond doubt are all tiny victories for Mark Hughes and his men.
And that is what City are about this season: tiny victories.
They cannot win the Champions League and will surely not win the Premier League. But if they can qualify for Europe in the top four it is a win. If they can land a domestic trophy, even the much-maligned Carling Cup, it is a win. And if they can come to the homes of the elite clubs and scare them, as happened here, it is a win, of sorts.
It serves notice that better is to come. City have taken an unnervingly short time to play catch-up with the elite. Chelsea came a long way in a relatively small period of time, too, and there was certainly a time under Jose Mourinho when United would have gone into matches at Stamford Bridge unfancied.
For once, the gambler in Ferguson may have overplayed his hand with the statement that United will never go into a derby game in his lifetime as second favourites.
There have already been changes in the Manchester dynamic.
The United supporters sang a familiar song to their sky blue counterparts about winning F-all. Yet, even that was an unwitting admission of altered expectation because it presumed there was a chance that City could win more than F-all.
Nobody used to have to tell City fans they would win F-all. They knew they would win F-all. Indeed, the last three decades have been one extended sequence of F-all.
That song is traditionally used against supporters of Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea, those with hopes of success. For it to be aimed at City is a huge compliment, as were vocal expressions of dread and fear from the United end as the game neared its conclusion with the home team leading 3-2.
Those who had grown used to feelings of cocky certainty on derby day were now muttering oaths under their breath. When their worst visions were realised by Bellamy's second equaliser, there was no wild roar of encouragement. Indeed, many began to leave, presuming City had earned, and were good enough, for the draw.
And there is the lesson, because, for all Hughes's complaints about the minutes added on, Manchester United's victory was not down to bad time-keeping, but good play.
They remain the team to beat because, under the most immense pressure, Ryan Giggs can still keep his head to make the killer pass and Michael Owen can keep his to finish.
They are the team to beat because through three comebacks they did not get dispirited, and because, even when Shay Given, the Manchester City goalkeeper, made three world-class saves in five minutes, they did not presume it was not going to be their day.
This is why Sunday, September 20, 2009 became, in the end, United's day, and why they have had so many of them in recent years. Will April 17, 2010, the scheduled date of the return, be one as well?
For once, we do not know for certain. And that ambiguity is in itself another tiny victory, however hollow it may feel right now.
