Ten-Man Manchester City Stun Manchester United as Erling Haaland’s controversial goal seals derby victory

Erling Haaland scored the decisive goal, his 9th Premier League goal this season. (Image credits – CommonsWikipedia, License Details)

Manchester City produced a remarkably disciplined performance to beat their arch rivals Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday, after being down to ten men for more than an hour to maintain their perfect start to the 2026/27 Premier League season.

Erling Haaland grabbed the decisive goal in the 60th minute after latching onto a cross from Josko Gvardiol to settle the 199th Manchester derby.

This massive victory lifted City to 2nd place in the table with 12 points from their opening 4 matches, while Manchester United remained 13th with just 4 points on board.

The game changed dramatically in the 23rd minute when Phil Foden was shown a straight red card after kicking out at Bruno Fernandes during a confrontation, although in the replays it showed that Bruno appeared to kick Foden first.

Therefore, Enzo Maresca’s men were forced to play with a man down for more than an hour, leaving Manchester United with a massive numerical advantage in front of their home crowd at Old Trafford.

The Red Devils came close to breaking the deadlock before City's winner, with Marcus Rashford and Kobbie Mainoo both hitting the woodwork from promising positions.

City, meanwhile, became increasingly compact after being a man down, and Enzo Maresca's side tried to sit back and hit on the break, with Erling Haaland being the focal point of the team's attack whenever they hit United on the counter.

This strategy eventually delivered after Gvardiol’s cross found Haaland, who finished it to give the visitors the lead.

The goal was initially ruled out for offside but was overturned following a VAR review, with semi-automated offside technology determining that Haaland himself was in an onside position.

However, this decision sparked a big controversy.

The organisation responsible for overseeing refereeing later admitted that VAR had made an “error of judgement" by failing to properly consider the involvement of Enzo Fernández, who was in an offside position and attempted to play the ball.

Despite the controversial goal, City held on and kept their shape compact.

Gianluigi Donnarumma produced a crucial late save as United pushed for an equaliser, allowing the visitors to leave Old Trafford with all three points. 

The defeat leaves Michael Carrick's Man United with plenty to address.

Playing against 10 men for over an hour, they failed to find the cutting edge required to punish City's numerical disadvantage.

For Maresca and his players, however, this performance demonstrated the team's resilience and discipline under massive pressure.