Manchester United v Man City LIVE: Premier League result and reaction as

Had this not been at a grand but crumbling Old Trafford, and bedecked in all the regalia of what is supposed to be one of the Premier League’s biggest games, most watching on would have fairly dismissed it as another routine Manchester City win over some mid-table side way below them.

There is a growing sense he is struggling to come up with answers. Mitigating circumstances only go so far when United have just offered up City’s second-easiest win of the season, in what is supposed to be the fixture that means the most. Only Fulham were beaten by more, but it still felt like they put up more of a fight. So did relative European minnows in the modern game such as Red Star Belgrade and Young Boys Bern. They only lost 3-1 to the European champions.

How United would have valued even the reprieve of the goal here. City were simply so much better than them without even needing to be that good.

Full report from Old Trafford by Miguel Delaney:

There was a time when Manchester City won at Old Trafford and it was Jonny Evans’ fault. This wasn’t it; not really, not when he was a cause of defeat but, more than anything, a symptom of Manchester United’s malaise. A decade into life after Sir Alex Ferguson, with well over £1bn spent, with more than £400m going on new players in Erik ten Hag’s reign, the man challenged with stopping Erling Haaland was Evans, the final throwback to Ferguson’s era.

Haaland escaped him and eluded him. Evans left him utterly unmarked to head in Bernardo Silva’s cross for his second goal, even if the mitigating factor was the presence of Rodri; he wandered off to police the Champions League final scorer instead. Evans left him again when Haaland set up Phil Foden for City’s third; when Andre Onana parried Rodri’s shot, Evans was caught dozing, the striker speeding past…