By Samuel A. September 15, 2025
Erling Haaland scored twice after Phil Foden’s opener, as injury and crisis hit Manchester City returned to winning ways in the Premier League by beating “noisy-neighbours” Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Pep Guardiola’s side came into the game with some concerns having suffered back to back defeats before the international break against Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton, but fears of another loss were crushed with goals from two players who seemingly enjoy playing against United. The win was a needed one, mostly needed to lift up spirits on a day when City paid tribute to former boxing world champion Ricky Hatton, a well-known fan of the club whose death aged 46 was announced earlier on Sunday.
Jeremy Doku was pivotal for the first two goals – dribbling through United’s defence after receiving the ball from Rodri to pull the ball back for Stockport’s finest Phil Foden to head home the opener on 18 minutes, and then playing a pass through to Haaland, who held off Luke Shaw and dinking in a sumptuous finish. Haaland, who came into the fixture on the back of scoring an astonishing five goals for Norway in the 11-1 thrashing of Moldova during the week, pulled narrowly wide in the opening 10 seconds, should have scored a second immediately after netting when he took the ball round Altay Bayindir but somehow sent the ball against the post with an open goal gaping in front of him. However, the City talisman was not to be denied on 68 minutes when he ran clear from the halfway line and made no mistake with an unerring finish past the Turkish keeper.
Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was thrown straight in for his City debut in this match after the deadline day move from Paris St-Germain, was immense in the box with his command, and also made a superb save at full stretch to deny Bryan Mbeumo’s volley from Dorgu’s bad cross.
United drop to 14th with just one victory this season, while City’s win moves them up to eighth.
There was talk of a crisis looming for Guardiola if City had lost this game, but Foden and Haaland helped the team to end any such talk.
Home supporters rejoiced by doing the ‘Poznan’ dance inside the stadium after watching their side claim the bragging rights courtesy of City’s sixth win over United in their last nine league meetings.
The goalscorers seem to relish the prospect of coming up against United (both scored hat-tricks in a 6-3 victory here in October 2022) and they did the damage for the hosts once more.
Foden’s header past the reach of Bayindir in the first half was his seventh goal in a Manchester derby, with the Englishman having only netted more frequently in his career against Brighton with eight.
United were falling apart and City were threatening to rack up another sizable scoreline against their opponents, with Tijjani Reijnders clipping wide after running through United ‘s defence, having also had a side-footed effort that was kept out by Bayindir in the first half.
Guardiola smiled with a lot of relief after a satisfactory afternoon, but the same cannot be said for counterpart Ruben Amorim, who was still adamant in the post match press conference about sticking to his philosophy, also stating that the club would have to change their man if they want to change the philosophy.
