Enzo Maresca's Man City squad headed to Old Trafford looking to extend their 100% record, knowing that their nearest rivals, Arsenal, had already beaten Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
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Physical encounter expected
Man Utd had won one, drawn one and lost one of their opening three games, so Michael Carrick will doubtless have been looking for a similar standard of performance to the one that saw his side win this exact fixture in his first game back as manager in January.
The hosts were on a four-match unbeaten run at the Theatre of Dreams, whilst the visitors were unbeaten in nine away matches, and with both starting in an attacking 4-2-3-1 formation, there were reasons to believe that the game was going to deliver an exciting spectacle.
In the early stages, the match was anything but exciting, albeit both sides certainly appeared up for a physical encounter.
When that spilt over in the 23rd minute, Phil Foden found himself red-carded (his first sending-off in 229 Premier League appearances) for a retaliatory challenge on Bruno Fernandes that he can have no complaints about.
Rashford on fire
The Portuguese arguably deserved a yellow for his part in the challenge, which elicited the reaction, but escaped punishment.
With City down to 10, it allowed Bruno to dictate proceedings from midfield, and though he wasn't at his absolute best, he didn't disappoint.
United's captain produced an 88.1% pass completion, had one of only three shots on target from the Red Devils - his 16th shot in total this season, no Premier League player has more - won half of his tackles, and two of his five attempted one-on-one duels.
His colleague Marcus Rashford was like a man possessed, with 10 touches in the City box and a shot that hit the woodwork just as the first half came to a close, as well as winning a third of his duels.
No shots on target for City in the first half
Indeed, the battle between the England man and Matheus Nunes was one of the features of this match.
City's right-back won all of his tackles, made two interceptions (only Enzo Fernandez made more - three), completed both his dribbles and also won 100% of his aerial and ground one-on-ones, frustrating Rashford time after time.
When Michael Oliver whistled for the end of the first 45, the visitors still hadn't managed an effort on target, with Erling Haaland left on the periphery for the most part.
The Norwegian can always be relied upon to affect a result, though, and he found the net on the hour, only to see the assistant referee correctly rule it out for offside, Fernandez making an attempt to play the ball from an offside position before it reached the centre-forward.
Incredibly, a short delay then saw VAR overturn the decision and allow the goal to stand, sparking pandemonium amongst the travelling supporters and anger on the United bench. Haaland's ninth goal against United in eight appearances was easily his most controversial.
Man Utd's 70% possession
The goal was absolutely against the run of play, too, as United had already seen five attempts - including Kobbie Mainoo's effort against the woodwork - go begging after the break.
It was far from a vintage performance from City, which was perhaps to be expected once they were reduced to 10 men. However, the solidity shown by Marc Guehi and Ruben Dias in the centre of their defence was noteworthy.
So commanding were they at times that the pair didn't need to make any tackles between them for the entire 90+ minutes, and Guehi would go on to win all of his ground and aerial battles against a disappointing United attack.
It made the hosts' collective 70% possession stat in the 15 minutes after the goal was scored against them a worthless statistic, and United's 10 fouls made in the match to that point, higher than their usual game average, gave a sign of their continuing frustration.
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No end product
Despite only coming on as a second-half substitute for the visitors, new-boy Iliman Ndiaye won the most fouls of any player in the game (five), attempted the most duels (19), won the most (nine) and also completed 100% of his tackles successfully.
In terms of pressure on their opponent, United certainly couldn't be faulted either, but the lack of an end product against a team who were there for the taking will be a concern for Carrick and Co.
City, despite not having their best day, ended the weekend joint-top and with that 100% record still intact.
Jason Pettigrove has been the features writer for Flashscore since 2025, utilising Opta data to form the basis of his articles. He has previously worked for high profile football clubs, news and media outlets, both in print and digital, and can usually be found watching FC Barcelona when time permits. You can read more of his pieces here.
