The standout performances, tactical masterclass, and brilliant goals secured a dominant derby victory.
The bragging rights returned to the red side of Manchester on Saturday lunchtime, as Manchester United beat rivals Manchester City 2-0 in the derby to kick off the Premier League weekend.
It was the perfect start to Michael Carrick's interim spell in charge of the club, with the former midfielder only being officially announced as Ruben Amorim's temporary successor earlier this week.
Make no mistake about it, this was no smash-and-grab. United thoroughly deserved this win. The only thing unjust about the scoreline is that it wasn't much more than 2-0.
To a man, Carrick's side was incredible. Nearly every player was at least an 8/10. The collective performance was also sublime - so what were the best bits? Let's try to somehow narrow them down.
One of the biggest talking points of the Amorim era was his use, or lack thereof, of Kobbie Mainoo. The midfielder had not started a single game in the Premier League under the Portuguese manager this season.
Yet, in Carrick's first game, he was straight into the starting line-up, and didn't he do well. With a couple of minutes of the first half remaining, he pulled off his signature body feint to take Antoine Semenyo out of the game.
The level of control he gives the team is just superb, yet we were told he couldn't play a deeper role. Having Mainoo in a double pivot and Bruno Fernandes higher up the pitch, influencing the game, makes you wonder what the hell Amorim was ever doing.
Often injured or simply left out under the previous management, Harry Maguire was at his colossal best in this game. The only fault you could give him was not opening the scoring early from a corner, hitting the woodwork from very close range.
The 32-year-old did not give Premier League top scorer Erling Haaland a sniff, so much so that Pep Guardiola made the lesser spotted decision to bring the striker off with ten minutes of normal time remaining.
Having been criticised a lot recently and named on the bench for this game, Matheus Cunha had a sublime cameo. The Brazilian set up Patrick Dorgu's goal to secure the three points, and would have had a second assist for Mason Mount, but for a very tight and perhaps dubious offside call
As mentioned earlier, pretty much everyone played well. On his return from AFCON, Bryan Mbeumo led the line excellently as a lone striker and scored his goal very well. Also on his return, Amad Diallo was bright on the right and so nearly made it 3 late on.
To finish off, though, a huge shoutout to Carrick. He schooled one of the greatest managers we have ever seen. He set the team up perfectly to negate City's attack, whilst also consistently being a counter-attacking threat.
Despite having 32% of the ball, United had 2.03 xG to City's 0.45, and six big chances to City's 0. Incredible tactical plan that was superbly carried out by all of the players. Onto Arsenal next.
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