THE DERBY took place in Manchester last night but only one horse was running.
This was a race between a thoroughbred and a donkey set for the knackers yard - and it wasn’t hard to work out which was which.
For those who have been living on a different planet for the last eight months then Manchester United are the latter.
The fallen champions have taken some heavy punches this season but the one delivered by the boys in blue after just 40 seconds topped the lot.
It came from Edin Dzeko, after David Silva and then Samir Nasri had been denied by a combination of Rafael Da Silva and the post.
If this had been a boxing match the referee would have stopped it in the first round.
But he didn’t and the blows just kept on coming from Manuel Pellegrini’s men to leave United floundering on the ropes like some punch-drunk fighter.
That is what United resemble now - a competitor way beyond his peak who knows those around him have left him behind in terms of ability and skill.
In fairness to the home side, they tried to fight their way back into the contest but their task was on a par with wading through treacle.
City should have been home and hosed before half time, but Silva missed a good chance and David De Gea produced a world-class save to deny Dzeko.
Pellegrini’s men ran riot, with Silva and Yaya Toure allowed to run amok in midfield, where Tom Cleverley proved once and for all he is out of his depth at this level and Marouane Fellaini resorted to violence to try to stop the blue tide surging towards him.
Both players were hauled off before 66 minutes had elapsed and if David Moyes wanted to show the Glazers once and for all how desperately short of midfield class he is, then his point had been firmly made.
The shift in power between these two rivals happened long before this game.
This was City’s third straight league win on this ground but they were not about to give-up the chance to offer United a harsh reminder of who now rules these parts.
The pain was etched on the face of Moyes as he surveyed a game he knew, deep down, his side had no chance of even drawing - let alone winning.
But here is the most worrying aspect of this whole sorry mess from United’s point of view.
This was the 150th league meeting between the two and, more importantly, a golden chance for United to do some real damage to City’s title hopes.
This is how far United have slumped. They have become nothing more than possible party-poopers, but still the huge incentive didn’t make a jot of difference to Moyes’s men.
They simply let their neighbours stroll round to their house and ransack it.
United hadn’t been humiliated like this since, well, earlier this month when Liverpool came to town.
Dzeko doubled City’s lead on 56 minutes before Toure hammered the final nail in United’s coffin to reward his side’s total dominance.
Moyes must want the season to end now but sadly for him it won’t and there will be more pain to come - provided he lasts long enough to suffer it of course.