Let’s start by taking a minute to understand what Guardiola’s done for Man City in such a short period of time. Even in the warm-up before the game, the City players looked to have much more team spirit: hugging each other, talking, etc. making them a better unit that works together. That first half of watching our players get drawn all over the pitch, making forced and unforced errors, tiring and losing confidence: that’s typical of Guardiola’s teams. Utd simply wasn’t prepared enough before the game: the players needed more belief. The nervousness was palpable and was a big contributor to the poor start. The half-time team talk and substitutions helped enormously, but it turned out to be too little too late. During the second half, Utd had more chances to take something from the game, still struggled to both create and finish off chances. The end of the last game against Hull and even the game against Bournemouth seemed to be cases of riding luck more than dominating and killing the game off.

There were a few performances that stood out:

Blind and Bailly

Our CB pairing began to show their weaknesses today against their toughest opponents yet. For all the praise of Blind playing well in previous games, he was the most at fault for De Bruyne’s goal, failing to read his run, and giving up once he was past him. He improved afterward, but our defense would have looked stronger in this game if a Bailly-Smalling partnership had had a few run outs and given a chance to gel. Bailly had a decent game from what I could see, but his tiredness near the end of the game was worrying. He needs to get fitter and quickly.

Lingard

Why Mourinho chose to start him over Rashford was probably the biggest question on everyone’s minds when the team sheet came out. Lingard has shown flashes of excellence last season, but showed nothing in this game to justify his selection ahead of our most promising teenager.

Rooney

Did not look as clean in possession, giving the ball away numerous times. But the biggest criticism is that he did not play a captain’s role. He needed to keep his emotions in check, and he ended up putting too much pressure on himself and playing poorly as a result of not doing so. He was lucky to stay on the pitch, as he should have had a yellow card well before the foul on Bravo (which was clearly retaliation, and was a possible straight red).

Mkhitaryan

Having played well in his sub appearances in previous games, I was so disappointed with his play today. His game was summed up with the scene of Old Trafford clamoring for him to chase down a ball in City’s half. He regularly failed to cover passes and follow his man while tracking back too. It makes me question his mentality and if he’s going to end up as another Memphis: a player who doesn’t give 100% every game.

Pogba/Fellaini/Herrera

Our central midfield was far too overrun in the first half. Pogba was guilty of regularly taking too much time on the ball. Fellaini was one of our better players, continuing the good form from previous games (even if he pushed too far up the pitch at times). Herrera was an inspired sub. He quickly demonstrated what Mkhitaryan should have been doing all game – always grafting, and holding his position very well.

Clattenburg

There are a number of Utd fans that will disagree, but I thought he actually had a very good game. All of the penalty appeals were probably correct and would have been very harsh. Bravo’s tackle on Rooney was probably the closest, but both players were guilty of endangerment and the keeper appeared to get the ball at the same time. He was restrained in handing out cards, and no one who got a yellow could legitimately complain.

But at least we care now. This is was a far better game than almost anything we saw under Van Gaal and all the players have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes in this game and improve. A few tactical tweaks, a little more unity, some fitness, and we’ll be right back in the mix for the title.