One of England’s hottest football rivalries is upon us once again.
In recent seasons, Manchester United have watched as their one-time “noisy neighbours” have claimed ascendancy in this fixture as the Red Devils have undergone a lengthy post-Ferguson rebuild. Will United again rise to their former glory or will City maintain their status as the leading Premier League club in the City?
Here are five of the best derbies in recent memory.
Manchester United 1 Manchester City 1, April 2001
This was the game when the football world began to appreciate just how much of a nutcase Roy Keane actually was. Keane came into the game with an axe to grind with Norwegian Alf-Inge Haaland. An incident three years earlier when Haaland was playing for Leeds had left Keane with a torn cruciate ligament.
Never one to go quietly into the night, the Irishman exacted the most unacceptable kind of revenge on Haaland, diving into a knee-high tackle and ending the Norwegian’s career. Keane received a deserved red card, a five-match ban and £150,000 fine. Keane later admitted in an autobiography that the tackle was a premeditated attempt to injure Haaland. Following the chaos that ensued after Keane’s dismissal, Paul Scholes missed a penalty and the chance to hand 10-man United the win and the game ended square at 1-1.
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