Coach Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City triumphed over Coach Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United in their first derby clash since they both took over their respective teams. Mourinho, who has won just three of his 16 meetings in all competitions with Guardiola, failed to close this ridiculous gap as Manchester City emerged victorious with a 2-1 win. Victory for Guardiola gave Manchester City a three-point lead in the English Premier League.

The irritation against Mourinho started when a former player he once considered a flop during his first spell at Chelsea, Kevin de Bruyne, created early uneasy moments with a fantastic goal in the 15th minute at Old Trafford. It clearly wasn’t Eric Bailly’s day, as the Ivorian international, who has been in a great form, was guilty of a defensive error. Kelechi Iheanacho, who started in place of suspended first team striker Sergio Aguero, corrected Bailly’s mistake with a tapped-in goal to extend the visitor’s lead to 2-0.

Big summer signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic made it four goals in four games after a bad clearance from City’s Claudio Bravo to give the Red Devils some hope right before the break. The second half was again a period of poor defensive cohesiveness, senseless midfield connections, spearheaded by a £112 million Paul Pogba, an absence of orthodox wing attacks, and just no goal creation threat from United.

Despite these countless flops, Marcus Rashford managed to place the ball through the net via a touch from Ibrahimovic, but he had his goal disallowed because of the Swede’s offside position.

“Of course I’m disappointed, but there’s a long way to go,” said Mourinho during a post-match interview with MUTV. Mourinho blamed the defeat on his placement of unfit Jesse Lingard and slow paced Henrikh Mkhitaryan in his team’s starting lineup.

Whatever the case may be, it wasn’t City’s best performance as controversial referee Mark Clattenburg denied United two penalties; one penalty was a justifiable red card for Bravo.

United will travel to Vicarage Road to face Watford next, while City will be at the Etihad versus Bournemouth.