United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has labeled the team across town the best in the country after they beat his side 2-0 today in the Old Trafford portion of the 2018-19 Manchester derby. City also took the reverse fixture 3-1 this season meaning that the blue side of Manchester beat their intra-city rivals 5-1 on aggregate this season as they move ever closer towards claiming an elusive treble.
With the win, City went one point up on Liverpool at the top of the table. “They had too much for us,” Solskjaer said after the defeat, his seventh in the last nine (after having started off with 14 wins in 17).
“They are the best team in the country, they have set the standard in the last two seasons and I don’t know how many points they’ve taken. What Pep Guardiola has done with his players is remarkable and we are so close to it in the vicinity so we feel it every day.”
It’s safe to say that Solskjaer believes City, not Liverpool will win the title with praise like that. For Pep Guardiola, it is three wins in three tries at Old Trafford. For City, it extends their run of dominance in the recent series. They have only lost once (2015) at the Theatre of Dreams since 2011.
There were many scapegoats for United today, but goal keeper David de Gea especially stood out from the rest. Overall, City is just far far ahead of United right not and Solskjaer knows it. He also knows that there is a long way to go to get back to the “noisy neighbors” level of quality.
Solskjaer He essentially said so in an interview with the BBC.
“There is a difference in quality,” the Norwegian said.
“That is why they are top and we are where we are. Living in Manchester we cannot be happy with that. It is up to us to close that gap and overtake them.”
At least the effort was there for United as they actually hung with City for a full half. That’s more than you can say about the no show at Everton on Easter Sunday.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.