Man City Terrace Talk: United’s descent into the world of ordinary has coincided with City’s ascent to the extraordinary

By the end, at the Etihad, it was a coronation for champagne football

Manchester City's Riyad Mahrez celebrates scoring their side's fourth goal of the game after it was allowed by VAR during the Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester. Picture  Martin Rickett/PA Wire. 

When the Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön stated that “Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us,” she probably had neither Kevin de Bruyne nor Riyad Mahrez in mind. United, it is fair to say, may well still be out on the Etihad turf now, looking for further clues on the subject.

Still, watching this fixture throughout the 90s and 00s, you could be forgiven for thinking the search for the vaguest element of indestructibility in City’s make-up would take forever. All roads led down and the Manchester Derby was the fixture that always seemed to confirm it.