Manchester United are up to fifth in the Premier League after a comfortable win at Old Trafford against **Pep Guardiola's**side.
The goals came in the second half from Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu. Despite having limited possession, it was a day where they made it count as they had 31% of the ball but had 11 shots with seven of these were on target.
It is the ideal start for their interim Head Coach and it could not have gone much better with a home win, marking a memorable day for the red side of Manchester.
Here are four takeaways from the game.
Playing players in their preferred position and formation
A noticeable factor in this game was that United started in a 4-2-3-1 formation and the players looked comfortable with their roles.
There was a centre-back pairing of Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martinez, with Diogo Dalot and Luke Shaw as traditional full-backs.
In midfield, Kobbie Mainoo benefited from the arrival of Michael Carrick as Mainoo was back into the side and put in a good display, alongside Casemiro.
The biggest change was that Bruno Fernandes started in his preferred number 10 role, as opposed to being put in as a central midfielder in a number six position.
Fernandes enjoys getting forward and he was able to do just that against City, providing the assist for the opener and having several shots himself. Fernandes' best form for the Red Devils came in 2020/21 under the then interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Carrick will be hoping that he can see Fernandes deliver such numbers again.
AFCON players back and straight into the side
The return of Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo will have come as a well-timed boost for Carrick as well. They are arguably two of United's star performers and, whilst it will not be used as an excuse by the manager, their absence for the past month could explain the dip in form and some of the poor results.
Diallo forced the City keeper into several saves and it was Mbuemo who scored the all-important opening goal.
Noussair Mazraoui will return next week after **Morocco**competed in the final of **AFCON**and this will give Carrick further options and strength to his squad, that has maybe been missing at times in recent weeks.
Derby day can always bring delight to the red side of the city
Inevitably, Manchester City have been the more successful side since the retirement of SirAlex Ferguson**** in terms of league titles and finishing positions. However, when it comes to a one-off derby game, United have had their fair share of wins in recent years.
They beat City in the **FA Cup**final in 2024 to claim the trophy and, previously, Jose Mourinho managed to beat Guardiola and delay City's title win and Solskjaer had a surprisngly good record against City.
Even last year, when United endured a difficult season, a late goal from Amad Diallo gave them a win at the Etihad under Ruben Amorim.
Many would have expected City to win this time and it was a disappointing day for them but for Carrick everything went to plan.
What next for United?
Temporarily they were up to fourth but after **Liverpool's**draw with Burnley they slipped back to fifth.
It is only one game and they have that tendency to turn up and get a result against City so the challenge will be to find consistency between now and the end of the season. It could be a result though that has the potential to give United some confidence.
Before Carrick's arrival they were a side low on belief so this could be what is needed. They kept a clean sheet but the thing that will please Carrick most will be the attacking performance as they could have scored more. If that is what Carrick has been able to do after just three days in charge then there may be reasons to be optimistic.
Many teams are competing for it but qualifying for the UEFA Champions League is not an impossible aim and it would mean the season is still remembered as a success.
Next week they go to **Arsenal**and that will be another tough test for Carrick. A positive result at the league leaders would certainly mean that they are starting to look up the table and not down.