I saw most of the last Manchester derby too and think that City played reasonably well, although we never got close to scoring - apart from a complete fluke, which you could not have made up. What frightened me was the fact that I felt United won comfortably without even playing well. (In its way Nani's opener was also a brilliant piece of finishing). The game which really showed up the difference though was the second League Cup game last year. United did virtually nothing (deliberately) until the last few minutes of the tie. The footballing lesson they gave us after that will haunt Manccini's dreams for years. All our ball supply to both wings was simply cut off and we were embarrassingly outclassed. It is football, of course, and anything can happen, although another horrible statistic (from our point of view) is that City have not won a cup tie of any sort against Man U since 1970! United will be looking forward to it more than us, for all of the bravado, which will inevitably be on display! United are able to win without playing well, whereas City will have to play above themselves to even compete. Maybe we can get lucky like we did at Stamford Bridge last year, when Chelsea outclassed us yet we still ran off with the points!

Er Arthur... about those transfer plans... I should have a plan B in place!