MANCHESTER: The nightmare goes on for Pep Guardiola. His disjointed Manchester City saw a 1-0 lead overturned, in front of their own fans, by two late, late goals from a barely convincing United.

City’s 2-0 defeat will be forever recorded as the Diallo derby after the 22-year-old Ivorien won a penalty and then scored the winner himself – all within 54 seconds.

Guardiola’s champions have won only once in 11 games in all competitions and United’s new manager Ruben Amorim could celebrate the result, if not his team’s performance. Not that he will care, in all the circumstances.

City had kicked off with a glimpse of title defence hope after both leaders Liverpool and Arsenal had dropped points the previous evening.

Liverpool had been held surprisingly at home by Fulham after playing most of the match with 10 men after a controversial early red card for Andy Robertson. Their own good fortune was that Arsenal had been held goalless at home by a tenacious Everton.

Amorim surprisingly omitted both Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho not only from his starting line-up but from his squad. If Amorim’s intention was to galvanise his other players then it had no obvious effect in a disappointing first half which saw United fall a goal behind after 36 minutes. 

Josko Gvardiol rose above Rasmus Hojlund to head home his third goal of the season from a left-wing cross from Kevin de Bruyne. This was the eighth time United had been caught out after a corner.

City were late out for the second half but were allowed to maintain command by a United team who were surprisingly inert given both the derby nature of the game and the fact that they trailed. Right winger Amad was their only spark of life and he forced a sharp save from Ederson in the 62^nd minute.

Remarkably this was United’s first effort on goal, a statistic which would have been beyond belief in the Ferguson era.

A second, even better opening fell United’s way in the 74^th minute only for Bruno Fernandes to shoot wastefully wide after being put through by Hojlund. Amorim, of course, had denied himself the substitution option of his top scorer, four-goal Rashford.

No matter. In the 88^th minute Matheus Nunes sold Ederson short, felled Amad in trying to make amends and Fernandes converted the penalty. Almost immediately Amad wrote his own piece of derby history by chasing down a through pass from Lisandro Martinez, escaping luckless Nunes again and turning the game on its head.

Guardiola offered no defence, saying: “We gave away goals, our fault. We don’t play with composure. I’m not good enough. I am the boss, the manager, I have to find solutions and so far I haven’t. That’s the reality. We want to play better, create chances. But at the moment it’s not possible.”

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