It was the most expensive Manchester Derby ever. You could call it the biggest derby, ever but that’s a difficult argument to make for just the fourth game of the season. Still, no can deny what a huge buzz there is/was for this contest. #ManchesterDerby is the third highest trending term on Twitter in the United States as we write this.
Thus let’s peruse some of the trending topics and news stories, related to United currently circulating in the Twitterverse, blogopshere and media world.
Today showed us why City, not United, were the consensus preseason Premier League title favorites.
The Red Devils had both the home field advantage and the luxury of not facing Sergio Kun Aguero. They were favored in this match, yet lost 2-1. The Citizens dominated a first half in which all the scoring occurred and they truly earned the victory in this the 172nd Manchester derby.
-Paul Pogba is a top ten trending term right now, but it’s not a good thing! He’s getting ripped apart on Twitter, for not living up to his most-expensive player expectations.
Spending so much on Pogba to play him out of position is like buying a Picasso and sticking it in the garage
— David Amoyal (@DavidAmoyal) September 10, 2016
Pogba:
£89.3M, 3 games, 0 goals, 0 assistsCapoue:
£6.3M, 4 games. 3 goals, 1 assist pic.twitter.com/F2FuIesayi— Football Hub (@FootbalIhub) September 10, 2016
-Wayne Rooney is trending too, but also because he’s getting torn apart by Twitter users everywhere. He’s such a polarizing player. He receives a ton of criticism; some of it is fair but a lot of it is really not.
Of course, when you’re captain of both England and Manchester United, it comes with the territory.
The difference in City's world-class number 10, De Bruyne, and United's, Rooney, is staggering. Not good enough to challenge for the title.
— Liam Canning (@LiamPaulCanning) September 10, 2016
https://twitter.com/Manchesterspeak/status/774606532713537536
Whenever I discuss Rooney I always find the divergence of opinion on him so flabbergasting. We are all watching the same player ?
— Annemarie Dray (@AnnemarieDray) September 10, 2016
–Here’s a Daily Mail column defending Rooney, excerpt of the intro below:
All week I’ve taken others’ criticism of Wayne Rooney on board, listening to the constant chipping away at what he apparently cannot do and why he is no longer good enough. Each day I’ve felt my mouth open a little more in disbelief. Most of what has been said is nonsense.
I want to make it clear here that I’m not going to paint a picture to suggest Rooney is in his pomp. He isn’t the dynamic force of nature he once was. It would be ridiculous to try to say he is and certain observations about him have been legitimate.
-Finally, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored United’s only goal today. Here’s an interesting nugget/tidbit relating to that.
Zlatan is the first player in history to score in the Manchester derby, El Clasico, Derby D'Italia, Milan derby, Barcelona derby #MUFC
— Red Army! (@RedorDead07) September 10, 2016
Zlatan Ibrahimovic enters rarefied air with 4th Manchester United goal in as many matches. https://t.co/7SMCPZMtl1 pic.twitter.com/qKFHT9a20P
— theScore (@theScore) September 10, 2016
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.