Ole Gunnar Solskjaer: Manchester United players 'worked their nuts off' in derby win over City

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes his team now has ‘more personality’ (Dave Thompson/PA)

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer saw his Manchester United side end City’s extraordinary winning run in the Etihad derby and then revealed that two players who played key roles were only chosen for the game after proving their fitness in the pre-game warm-up.

Anthony Martial won the opening penalty inside the first minute before Luke Shaw wrapped up all three points early in the second half — although both almost missed the fixture.

“Anthony Martial was man of the match, I thought he was absolutely superb today,” said Solskjaer.

“He was more the Anthony of old and to think he was a doubt this morning. Until after the warm-up I wasn’t sure if he was going to play or not.

“And Luke was absolutely incredible. He was a massive doubt until after the warm-up. He needed to do the warm-up to be cleared to play and Alex (Telles) was ready.”

Solskjaer, whose team is now unbeaten away from home for 14 months and 22 away fixtures, believed that the result was a further example of his side’s progress and can help them end the season in style.

“Definitely we have to draw on previous good experience and how did that feel out there we knew we had to suffer,” he said.

“We suffered a lot, they worked their nuts off. I think the experience of having gone through that has helped us of course.

“They’re 11 points ahead with 10 games to go. We need to be better and focus on ourselves and be a better Man United. I think we’re a better Man United than we were 12, 13, 16 months ago.

“It’s been a relentless season, a relentless year for everyone, a challenging year for everyone. But we’re more robust, resilient and there is more personality in this team. That’s what I like.”

City manager Pep Guardiola saw his team’s record 21-game winning run come to a painful end but struck a defiant pose in response.

“We’re going to talk about it because we lost, it will be the news,” said Guardiola. “But the news is 21 victories in a row, that’s the news.

“This result is going to help us understand a lot how difficult it is. Sometimes you have to not win one game to realise.

“In football, everything can happen. Everything can happen. We can win the next game and lose the next games.

“We have done incredibly. Today the news is that we lost, so congratulations to Man United for the victory but we are trying to win the Premier League and we need six or seven victories from 10 games.

“Tomorrow I will not speak with the team, the day after tomorrow I will not speak with the team, and the day of the game against Southampton I will tell the team how incredible they are.”

Having seen his team miss a number of good chances, Guardiola was forced to second-guess his decision not to bring on the club’s record goalscorer Sergio Aguero as a substitute.

“Maybe. Maybe he could have played,” he said. “Maybe it was the wrong decision. You don’t know, I don’t know. I thought about it.”