On an afternoon of cold, imperious dominance at the Etihad Stadium, two things stood out. First Manchester City produced passages of football that were utterly breathtaking, so beautifully engineered in their movement and passing that at times the result felt like an inevitability.

And second David Silva and Sergio Agüero, the two most bizarrely gong-free superstars in the Premier League, were once again the dominant forces. It is an unarguable truth of this City project. For all the hundreds of millions spent, the renovation of every surface, the best trick City ever pulled was signing Silva and Agüero eight and seven years ago respectively.

David Silva sparks Manchester City’s precious derby victory over United Read more

Silva it was who scored the opening goal with 12 minutes gone at an agreeably boisterous stadium. It was a moment that brought together both of these elements: the purity of City’s football and the enduring brilliance of their old lags.

In those early exchanges City hadn’t so much taken charge of this game as picked it up by the elbows and carried it off out of the door, feet barely touching the ground. The sky blue blitz has been a key weapon this season. Time and again City have come surging out at the first whistle like a freak wave hurtling up the beach, crushing every sandcastle in its path.

Before this afternoon Pep Guardiola’s team had scored eight times in the first 14 minutes. Silva made it nine at the end of a passage of play that was close to a kind of perfection, during which City’s opponents were effectively reduced to the status of a plot device, a piece of exposition around the edges.

In those opening 12 minutes City completed 96 passes to United’s five and had 91% of possession. It wasn’t bravura, adrenal attacking football. This was a system being implemented with unrelenting precision.

The goal came from a classic Guardiola move, the ball fizzed at thrilling speed from left to right, Silva finding Raheem Sterling, whose cross was pinged back towards Silva, whose shot was spanked hard into the back of the net off David de Gea’s hand.

It felt fitting that Silva should be the scorer, and indeed that Agüero should get the second in a Manchester derby that marked 10 years to the month since the first of these games in the Theatre of Dirhams era.

By the time he left the pitch, to so many handshakes you half expected United’s players to start joining in, Silva had once again played like the only grownup on the pitch. When United pressed, as they did to their credit, it was Silva who began to take the ball and keep it, passing simply, taking the tempo down a notch.

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United did play well in patches. José Mourinho’s starting midfield trio of Matic-Herrera-Fellaini was a fascinating prospect, a collection of medieval siege towers wheeled out on to the Etihad Stadium pitch to confront City’s elf army. With Pogba absent Mourinho had little choice but to just hang it all and go full José, to line up those Easter Island heads and try to squeeze the game as hard as possible.

City’s early goal was followed by a period of stasis. Marcus Rashford was lively for 10 minutes. The game entered a drowsy, somnolent period, too early for United to start gearing up their final barrage, too early for City to commit in search of more. John Stones was outstanding in central defence, all elegant, long-striding certainty. And it was Agüero who made it 2-0 in another of those periods of high‑speed blitz football at the start of the second half. Bernardo Silva won the ball in midfield. Riyad Mahrez played his best pass of the game, a lovely little indolent return pass to Agüero that invited him to spank the ball into the top corner with thrilling power, the finish of a genuine artist.

Such are Guardiola’s attacking riches he could afford to rest the Premier League’s best centre‑forward on Wednesday night. And here he was back again, hair bleached a spectacular lemon sorbet rinse, looking refreshed and mobile and ready to apply that thrilling razor edge, the veering runs, the sniper’s eye in shifting the ball and rippling the corners. The Etihad Stadium really is Agüero’s sunlit stage: he now has 18 goals and five assists in his past 14 Premier League games here, tribute to a player whose game has evolved and found deeper gears under Guardiola. Quite how he keeps on managing not to get in the Premier League’s team of the season remains an oddity, 151 goals into his time here.

United pulled one back, deservedly, through Anthony Martial from the spot. But City always seemed likely to score a third. That they did at the end of a move that took in 44 passes and involved an exhausted defensive mistake right at the end, allowing Ilkay Gündogan to score, was also unsurprising.

There have been more ruthless derby victories than this, but few surely as coldly executed as this, with the sense of one team simply exploring its range; and driven on as ever by the peerless David Silva, still the best decision anyone on the bridge of this annihilating sky blue super tanker ever made.