TM time travel to 6:1
It’s not like Manchester City has never been able to win against their big city rivals Man United. And yet victories over the record champions, especially in the league, were the exception for a long time. However, with promotion back to the Premier League in 2002, the signs slowly began to change for City, and ten seasons later – exactly twelve years ago, on October 23, 2011 – the Sky Blues could hardly have made it clearer to the Reds that this was happening balance of power had changed.
Man City celebrated its first championship since the founding of the Premier League in the 2011/12 season – the fourth in English football history. A milestone on the way there was the 9th matchday, on which the “Citizens” served the reigning champions a very meaningful 6:1 (1:0) in their own stadium in Old Trafford. In the end, United almost became champions, but still had to hand over the title to their city rivals on the last match day – because of the poorer goal difference.
These players were active at Man United and Man City
“We wanted to win the game to prove to everyone that we are serious in this league,” recalls then City defender Joleon Lescott (quoted via “PA Sports”). “We had extra motivation because no one outside the club took us seriously and everyone said we were only together because Man City were throwing money at us all.”
Big win at United: Balotelli & Dzeko scored twice for Man City
City’s derby weekend began with headlines about Mario Balotelli setting his house on fire the day before the city clash as he tried to set off fireworks from the bathroom early on Sunday morning. The Italian had to flee, ended up in the headlines with pictures of the completely destroyed bathroom and just a day later, when he scored for City in a 6-1 win, he revealed a T-shirt with the inscription “why always me?” end up on the front pages of the tabloids.
Manchester City 2011/12: That was the championship team back then
Balotelli scored twice on that glorious evening at Old Trafford. Edin Dzeko, whom City brought in from VfL Wolfsburg for 37 million euros in January 2011, also scored two goals in the final minutes. One of his goals was scored by defender Lescott, who had already seen the victory coming when United’s Jonny Evans was sent off in the 47th minute when the score was 1-0 for City. He said: “As soon as they were down to ten men, we knew we would win the game.”
In fact, the football world in Manchester changed afterwards, at least in terms of the numbers. After City won the championship in 2012 under current Italian national coach Roberto Mancini, their city rivals – previously 19-time English champions – only regained the title once again the following year with coach Sir Alex Ferguson. City, on the other hand, were crowned five more times, once with Manuel Pellegrini and four times under Pep Guardiola.
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This article is from the TM archive and was first published on October 23, 2021.
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