English football is usually dramatic, and in the FA Cup that drama takes on a sudden-death quality. So when Manchester City hosted Manchester United in the romantic third round, we could have expected a spectacle. We got one.
Twisting and turning, this was a classic shoot-out. United could have been five to the good at the break, and could have suffered an embarrassing and potentially crippling defeat by the end.
City could have collapsed and given it away, but instead found a way to leave their fans feeling brighter than many of those sporting red.
So how will the two managers approach the mental game from now on?
Roberto Mancini’s spin doctoring will surely be the easier. He will tell his team that they had scarcely one decision go their way. Kompany could have stayed on the pitch, Jones could have given away a late penalty for handball. He will ignore the penalty not given to Valencia in the second half, and Chris Foy’s obstruction of United’s defenders late on.
He’ll tell them that even playing with ten men for all but ten minutes, and with a 3-0 half time deficit, they still had their rivals quivering late on.
Sergio Aguero was already singing that line on Twitter after the game. “I seldom try to find excuses or comment on the referees but the unfair expulsion of Vincent Kompany conditioned the whole game today […] Despite losing, I believe we leave the field strengthened. We almost equalised against all the odds. With this attitude, anything is possible.”
These sentiments all attempt to mask the fact that City were beaten at home by an English team for the first time this season, that they’re out of the FA Cup, and that they were beaten by United who were already a goal up when the card was issued to Kompany. Whether this psychological positioning is successful may be crucial to City’s progress.
Ferguson’s job is more delicate. Even with most of the luck and all of the very big calls, his side nearly blew it. Instead of grinding City into their own turf as had happened in reverse at Old Trafford, at times late on his side looked like they were paralysed by fear of the comeback.
As a United fan I must admit Anders Lindegaard’s late efforts to deny the blue tide were not helpful to my blood pressure.
But they won. And at one stage, they were trouncing City. When Wayne Rooney was able to nod in his failed penalty under no pressure, it seemed a telling moment in the season. As I saw the almost uninterested faces of the City players on the edge of the box, and their lack of effort to reach the rebound, I thought their spirit may be wavering. Had United gone on with the job in the second half that spirit might have been seriously damaged.
So what will Ferguson say? First he will say that the sending off was not only the right decision, but the only available decision. He is already saying that. Then he’ll tell his team that they were on top anyway when that decision was made. He’ll say that they knocked the ball around comfortably when running out the clock, that their experience came through again in the clutch.
Beyond all of this, Ferguson’s key tool has always been the siege mentality. He no doubt employed it liberally before the game, and will do so again after. He will tell his players that after being slain 6-1 back at Old Trafford, and losing two games in a row that they ought to have won, they have bounced back.
Then he might just tell his players that nobody believes they won fairly. That once again, they all they think United are not good enough. It would be typical of a team managed by Sir Alex Ferguson to see it as their mission over the next five months to prove ‘them’ wrong.
Whichever way the Premier League title goes, this particular derby could come to be seen as one of the key days in the season, though it wasn’t even a match in the League itself.
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