https://www.nytimes.

com/2022/03/06/sports/soccer/manchester-united-
city-derby.html

In Derby Without Drama, City

Wins a Laugher
By Rory Smith
March 6, 2022. Updated 3:52 p.m. ET

Hoàng Mai Khôi

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The Manchester derby has changed, mostly because United can no longer keep
pace and City no longer has anything to prove. MANCHESTER, England — There
was no tension in the last few minutes. It had gone long before the fourth goal
arrived, marking the point at which victory turned into a rout. So had what little
anxiety, what scant fretfulness might still have lingered. This is no longer a club with
a point to prove. It is no longer a day to be dreaded. Increasingly, for Manchester
City, derby day is fun. For all the attention rivalries command, for all the baroque
music and the pulse-quickening montages they inspire, the shape of most of them is
hard-baked and unchanging. One year, Michael Owen scored in injury time at Old
Trafford, the pain more intense because parity had been so close. Another year,
Wayne Rooney leapt into the sky, his comic-book overhead kick breaking City’s
hearts again. And then the spell broke. City beat United twice on the way to the
Premier League title in 2012: a breathtaking, era-changing 6-1 win at Old Trafford
followed by a nail-biting 1-0 victory at the Etihad, the game that ultimately swung the
race in City’s favor.