Incredible match! Although both teams did not play brilliantly from start to finish, the derby match between United and City produced 7 goals in total, and saw both Fletcher and Bellamy score 2 goals a-piece for their respective teams, but in the end it was Michael Owen's shot which saved the day for United in [.

So thinks former Arsenal player (and City fan) Lee Dixon in his BBC column (with a nod to Jack for the link):

I'll say it again, balance will be the key to City's success this season.

But they are still a tour de force going forward as well.

At Fratton Park, they employed Emmanuel Adebayor as the key frontman, with Carlos Tevez, Bellamy, Wright-Phillips and Ireland supporting and inter-changing behind.

The Manchester derby was an enthralling affair providing us with one of the games of the season. The momentum ebbed and flowed between the two teams throughout as both searched for the upper hand on the other. Before kick off we were greeted with the news Carlos Tevez would start, which added even more spice to the game.

We're only six games into the season, but much has already become apparent. Under-performers, over-performers, challengers, also-rans, and players and teams to watch for the right and the wrong reasons. Here's a quick look at the most obvious, interesting, and intriguing...

Manchester City

It's already clear they will be a force to be reckoned with this season.

It's getting near that time when even I would travel up to the chilly north of our fine country, but maybe that's because ‘those lights' are soon to be turned on in Blackpool!!

On that note, this coming Saturday I think it will be the Mighty Arsenal who will shine as bright as those Blackpool Illuminations, and come away with three points at least.

"There's an understanding that at times the next game or opposition might not be the right one for them to be in the side.

"I look at the opposition and the threats our players can make - against different teams you need different threats. That will always come into my thinking, and the players understand that.

Whilst performances so far this season have been professional - with the results reflective of this - our opponents in those games are those who we should be victorious against if we have designs on a succesful season.
This now changes with the visit of Arsenal (and the trip to United the following week) as these will be more of a measure of us as a side, and our potential for the remainder of the season.

Adebayor decided to remind us all of why we sold him today ahead of the game by saying that any fans who booed him during his tenure with Arsenal are "not real fans" and "tomorrow they will support Liverpool." He just doesn't get it, does he? The relationship between supporters and players is just that a relationship.

Having taken a few weeks off to study Arsenal‘s play, I am now back to discuss the latest game and clarify the recent fear that is tingling inside you.

Following the last two trips to Manchester, I have noticed that many of you have commented on Arsenal's failure but on the contrary; both games showed that we were very unfortunate.

Make no mistake, todays win was an important one.
With eyes upon us, and an air of expectation around the stadium we turned in a result and performance that suggested this side could be ready to achieve something.
With a more defensive formation, we managed to combine both endeavour and an attacking threat to come away with all three points when at one stage we may well have been facing a defeat.

During Sunday's Manchester Derby, Craig Bellamy managed to do just about everything possible to make United fans hate every fiber of his being. Firstly, he scored two rather nice goals to keep the City team in the match. Then he elected to celebrate the second goal by doing a thoroughly inappropriate airplane celebration (a reference to the Munich Disaster, if you didn't know).

"All Craig has done is go over there and tell the guy to get off the pitch," said Mark Hughes. "Craig wasn't privy to how much time was left to enable us to get back into the game. The guy made an aggressive move towards him and Craig wanted to get him off the pitch. Craig just put a defensive hand out to push him away.

"Slagging Off Bellamy And Tevez On F365" was originally published at The Republik of Mancunia.