Manchester City vs. Manchester United: Robin van Persie wins stunning spectacle

A lot happened. But Manchester City 2-3 Manchester United wasn’t a good game. Before the game, Callum Hamilton called it a “clash of the incompetents” and, for various reasons, that’s what it was. It’s probably vogue to put United’s victory down to the supremacy of their full-backs -- Rafael da Silva especially -- or Wayne Rooney’s disciplined efficiency in shutting down Yaya Toure. Such a reading, though, ignores the fact that one of City’s fullbacks -- Pablo Zabaleta -- scored, that City’s entire defense was compromised by Vincent Kompany’s early injury and Toure spent most of the second-half limping around, scoring nonetheless with his toffee leg. The game defied any sort of holistic tactical analysis.

Instead, and this is typical of Manchester City games, it came down to individual mistakes and triumphs.

That resulted in quite a lot of blood (from 101 great goals):

Football fans can be very unpleasant when they’re riled up. Consider how much fun the match was, it’s a huge shame that it had to end like this.

That’s a huge turnaround within the span of a minute. Had United gone 3-0 up, this match would have been over. Now the hosts are in with a chance.

Shortly afterwards, United made it two, with a better-worked goal but still some dodgy defending from City to give Rooney the freedom of the area. Also note Rafael’s new haircut, obviously spiralled by a fit of depression after his 31st-minute substitution last week.

Having said that, Gareth Bary’s just had a decent pop at goal. But Barry being Barry, the shot goes wide.

Eventually City get a corner, which David de Gea has a free catch from. He drops it, and then picks it up again.

The counter to this is that the practicalities of removing Ferguson do not justify the potential high-ground to be gained. The last time he announced his retirement before deciding to carry on, his team became demoralised and entered an ominously shocking run of form. Furthermore, Ferguson has become so ingrained within the structure and identity of Manchester United that life without him would be a great leap into the unknown - would United become a less attractive destination for transfer targets? Would the youth system be neglected? Would United’s much-fabled winning mentality abandon them? It’s impossible to know.

The comparison of moral arguments to practical ones is frequently an apples-and-oranges scenario, as they’re often directly opposed, but we are reaching the point where the case for pragmatism has weakened, and would seem to have shifted the idea of Ferguson’s departure from potential catastrophe to a mixed blessing.