Another boring, tedious international break will soon be here (well, the Wayne Rooney Foundation International is an interesting story line), but before it arrives we still have a blockbuster of a Manchester Derby. At halftime, Manchester City are up 1-0 on Manchester United, thanks to a 12′ goal from David Silva.
Here are some of the news and notes surrounding the headliner fixture of this Premier League weekend.
Here is the footage of that Silva scoring strike, which was certainly a beauty to say the least.
https://twitter.com/D9INE_2019/status/1061661595950956544
It’s the second quickest Manchester derby goal ever at the Etihad. The earliest was Robbie Fowler’s after just three minutes in 2004. It was also Silva’s fourth goal in the derby; making it safe to say that he really enjoys playing in this game.
As you know, Paul Pogba is not playing in this game due to a very mysterious and unspecified injury. When we heard Pogba missed training on Friday, we seriously thought this was just manager mind games.
I wish we could give you more information on that, but we don’t have it. What we do know, if Pogba’s agent Mino Raiola is to be believed, is that the French midfielder has now patched up his relationship with manager Jose Mourinho.
So if you have fatigue from Mourinho-Pogba feud coverage, and we certainly don’t blame you if you do, well, here’s one less thing to annoy you.
“He has patched up his rapport with Jose Mourinho and is calmer now,” Raiola told RAI Sport. “He feels important to Manchester United, even if Turin remains in his heart.”
-Elsewhere, newly minted man Raheem Sterling has certainly been a lightning rod over the course of his career. City manager Pep Guardiola doesn’t understand this though, and he defended his player as “an incredible nice guy.”
Finally, Luke Shaw picked up his fifth booking of the season in the first half, and thus, he is now suspended for the next league match against Crystal Palace.
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 Lineups.com and Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.