City hammer United in derby

Manchester City 4 Manchester United 1

Jubilant Manchester City recorded their first back-to-back derby home wins for 23 years to send United’s season plunging into freefall.

Just five days after their Champions League hopes were eclipsed by Porto, the Red Devils’ title dream was almost certainly brought to a premature end.

To make matters worse, the early damage was done by a former Liverpool player in Robbie Fowler and ex-United trainee Jon Macken.

Paul Scholes pulled one back for the visitors but Trevor Sinclair took advantage of a dreadful Mikeal Silvestre blunder 17 minutes from time before Shaun Wright-Phillips rifled home number four in stoppage time.