The Athletic FC

Welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Ayot Akimwalere.

The Michael Carrick era at Altrafford started with a win.

Carrick himself labelled it a dream start after winning the Manchester Derby.

So are Manchester United back already?

Joining us for this one, we have our Manchester United writer, Carl Anker, and Olli Kaye, who was also at Old Trafford for the Athletic on Saturday.

And later on, we'll also be joined by our Manchester City correspondent, Sam Lee.

Carl, let's break it into it. Big men stepped up, 2-0. Did you think this Manchester United team were capable of what we saw over the weekend?

Yes and no, in that we've seen a series of post-Ferguson managers get victory in the Derby through really, really strong counter attacking football, really strong

attacking transitions. But I've never seen that level of front foot domination from a Manchester

United team. If you're a fan of XG, United finish with 2.27 versus Manchester City 0.45. That's the

lowest amount of XG city you've put up in a Derby since

October 2015. This was, Laurie Whitwell called this a pulverizing. Some other Manchester United fans

who are less eloquent or a bit more needily called it something else. Yeah, that was Man United

best foot forward playing with structure,

clarity and a purpose that we just haven't seen from United in the last 20 months.

Where was this in Bilbao? Honestly, what fun. You know what, Olly, Alex Ferguson was in the stands

and I saw him clapping jublantly. Obviously, Michael Carrick in the dugout and Manchester United

were very clinical in attack. Some might say back to the old United way. And we had a discussion

last week actually on certain clubs sort of relying on nostalgia, relying on the good old days,

hence hiring old pros to come back and try and steady the ship. This is kind of case in point in many respects,

but maybe there's a little something there, especially in this game. James Horncastle wrote a

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