Sir Alex Ferguson described his teams spirit as ‘shattered’ and the day of the 6-1 defeat of Manchester United by archenemies Manchester City as ‘It’s our worst-ever day’.

The last time Manchester United were trashed so brutally by Manchester City, a 5-1 defeat at Maine Road in September 1989, Alex Ferguson went home and lay for hours with his head buried under a pillow that fateful day. This will certainly have hurt even more. “I can’t believe it,” Sie Alex Ferguson heard to have said.

Manchester United have not lost this heavily at home to Manchester City since 1926. One more goal for Roberto Mancini’s high flying team would have marked Man. United’s worst home defeat, inflicted by Newcastle United in 1930. As for Sir Alex Ferguson, his record books have been scarred forever. “It’s the worst result in my football history, ever,’ he cried. “Even as a player I don’t think I ever lost 6-1. It’s an incredible disappointment.’

Manchester City defeat Manchester United : Sir Alex Ferguson feels the pain of his ‘worst-ever day’

Roberto Mancini tried to play down the victory when he was asked whether Man United’s first home defeat in 38 games represented one of the more satisfying results of his career. “No,” he replied, “I’m satisfied because we beat Manchester United away and I don’t think there are a lot of teams that could win here. But in the end there are only three points – we don’t take six points.”

But this felt surely like far more than just another win. Darren Fletcher described United’s performance as ‘naive’ and Alex Ferguson accused the 10 men of being carried away by Manchester United’s history of improbable comebacks.

“It was hard to believe we were 1-0 down but that’s retrievable. The sending off of Jonny Evans was the killing blow for us. After that, we kept attacking. It’s all right playing the history books but common sense has to come into it. When we went to 3-1, 4-1 we should have settled for that. We kept attacking and we should have just said: ‘We’ve had our day.’ But our two full-backs were playing like wingers. At times it was two versus three at the back. And that was suicidal, if not crazy.”

Roberto Mancini praises Manchester United and ‘crazy’ Mario Balotelli after 6-1 romp

Roberto Mancini showed great respect for the opponent they just have trashed and had generous words for the beaten Manchester United side. “This is important for our confidence but we should appreciate the mentality Man United have. Manchester United are too strong for this to affect them badly. They know, like me, there are only three points and this is merely one game.”

Manchester United, Mancini stated, are “still one yard above us. We can alter this only after we claim the title. After that, maybe it will be different but, for now, Manchester United is still better than us.”

Roberto Mancini could afford to laugh at Mario Balotelli’s latest self-inflicted controversy, the striker’s house catching fire after he and four friends let off fireworks from a bathroom window in the early hours of Saturday.

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“If we want to talk about Mario as a football player, I’d put him in the first five players in the world,” City’s manager said. “The problem is his age. He is young and he can make mistakes.

“As a player, he is incredible and I hope for him, and for football in general, we arrive at the day when Mario has completely changed his mentality because, after that, he becomes one of the best three players in the world, like [Lionel] Messi, like Cristiano Ronaldo.”

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The message Mario Balotelli revealed on his T-shirt – “Why always me?” – after scoring the first of his two goals summed it up. “It’s Mario,” Mancini said. “He’s crazy. But I love him because he’s a good guy. I don’t know what happened with the fireworks. The good thing is he was not hurt. But all I know is that he is sleeping at a hotel now.”

The day ended in angry scenes outside Old Trafford, with missiles thrown at the car taking the Glazer family away from the stadium.Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko each scored twice, and Sergio Aguero and David Silva added the others as City ended United’s 18-month home unbeaten run and moved five points clear of the reigning champions at the top of the table.

“We have to recover, we have to be fast about it”  Alex Ferguson said. “In the history of Manchester United this is another day and we will recover. But that kind of defeat will make an impact on the players. There’s a lot of embarrassment in that dressing room and quite rightly so.”

Alex Ferguson once derided the modern-day Manchester City as being “all talk”. Now he has hard evidence that Mancini’s team are the most serious threat to United’s title hopes. “People call us the noisy neighbours,” Micah Richards, the Manchester City right-back, said. “Well, here we are.”

Manchester United vs Manchester City : 6-1

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