MANCHESTER UNITED 4 MANCHESTER CITY 2
Manchester United — Young 14', Fellaini 27', Mata 67', Smalling 73'
Manchester City — Aguero 8', 89'
English football correspondent
MANCHESTER, England // Manchester derbies offer symbolic snapshots. There are moments that are microcosms, incidents that are illustrative of the wider picture.
So it was when Chris Smalling leapt to head in Manchester United’s fourth goal.
The soaring Smalling was sinner turned scorer, the man branded stupid by Louis van Gaal when he was sent off in November’s defeat at the Etihad Stadium was able to celebrate.
It was a redemptive, rehabilitative afternoon for United, one where revenge was allied with renaissances.
The fortunes of neighbours have been transposed, swiftly and starkly.
It was highlighted on the half-hour.
A drenched Manuel Pellegrini stood alone on the touchline, a man in a Mancunian storm, as Old Trafford echoed to the sound of Marouane Fellaini’s name.
Unfashionable figures are interlinked.
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Each experienced this fixture for the first time together: it was a transformative game for both.
Pellegrini was set on a path that led to popularity and trophies by a 4-1 win in September 2013, Fellaini on a road to ridicule.
His first league start for United was his most miserable when he was overrun by Fernandinho and Yaya Toure.
It is no exaggeration to say his season never recovered, but then he was stymied by David Moyes as a deep-lying midfielder.
Van Gaal has reinvented him as a roving destroyer, an unconventional, ungainly master of mischief.
Fellaini’s idiosyncrasies now make him a cult hero.
His chest control is his signature move; indirectly, it led to Ashley Young’s equaliser.
The giant hairstyle that renders him immediately recognisable serves as a warning: he will win the ball in the air.
Van Gaal has admitted it is impossible to drop the Belgian and opponents can testify it is difficult to track him.
He pops up between the lines and his awkward style conceals a middle-distance runner’s stamina.
Fellaini’s rather gormless appearance camouflages the ruthlessness to identify weaknesses.
He tends to head for the far post at crosses, looking to jump against a full-back when his height advantage will be greater.
So it was when he climbed above Gael Clichy to put United ahead.
When David de Gea took goal kicks, City deployed Yaya Toure to try to halt Fellaini, man-mountain trusted with stopping man-mountain.
This was a role reversal, United’s usual nemesis trying to hang on to Fellaini’s coattails.
In an emphatic, entertaining triumph, the Belgian was the most influential player on the pitch.
Their inferiority complex seems to have disappeared, demolished by Fellaini.
United’s third goal came after he dispossessed Martin Demichelis.
Eight months after he was jeered by a section of the United support in a pre-season friendly against Valencia, Fellaini was substituted to a standing ovation.
“The fans see that he is very important for the team,” Van Gaal said. “He scores goals, he beats pressure when we need it and he plays always the ball to the same colour (shirt).”
A fan favourite has become one of the manager’s preferred players.
“From Day 1 he is the player who is always doing what I asked,” Van Gaal said.
But Fellaini’s revival remains remarkable.
He has assumed the role Angel Di Maria was supposed to: he has become the big-game player, the talisman that Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and City could not contain.
He is in the team ahead of the most expensive player in the history of British football, ahead of one of the most potent goalscorers of his generation, in Radamel Falcao, ahead, potentially, of Robin van Persie when the Dutchman is fully fit again.
An overreliance on Fellaini brought Van Gaal criticism. Yet now United have a more rounded game plan, going short and long, using technicians and physical force, but based around the misfit who has become a mainstay.
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