It was Ander Herrera and Manchester United who were celebrating at the end of Saturday evening’s Manchester derby but at half-time, the picture was almost implausibly different.

The Manchester City fans who had arrived in hope of witnessing a historic day were in full voice, with their side 2-0 up and rampant. It should have been more but in the 45 minutes to come, the scoreline was surely only going to grow more and more humiliating for their visitors.

Jose Mourinho’s gameplan had worked for a quarter of the match but was blown apart after Vincent Kompany opened the scoring and City would have been out of sight at the interval were it not for the continued profligacy of Raheem Sterling.

Ander Herrera had been brought into the side to inject energy but he was powerless to stop the sky blue tide sweeping towards David de Gea’s goal in the opening period.

Heading for the tunnel at half-time, he spat on the ground where the large City badge lay – and some observers have declared that it was intentional.

The Spaniard – valued at £27m by Transfermarkt – denied that he did so as a sign of disrespect but either way, United fans were loving it…

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