Kevin de Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez scored twice as Manchester City reopened a six-point lead at the top of the Premier League after beating Manchester United 4-1 at the Etihad on Sunday.
The defeat means there is now a 22-point gap between the clubs and another blow to United’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League next season.
The Red Devils are now fourth behind Arsenal, who also have three games to go.
At the top of the table, Liverpool also have a game to reduce City’s advantage to three points.
But Pep Guardiola’s men responded to the pressure exerted by the Reds’ seven-game winning run in the league by pulling back from two super-par performances against Tottenham and Everton.
In their meeting at Old Trafford earlier in the season, there was a gap in the square between the sides as City achieved just a second league double over their local rivals as the balance of power in Manchester changed since its takeover of Abu Dhabi in 2008. went.
United were without the injured Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani in the attack, but it was defenders Rafael Varane and Luke Shaw, missing due to positive cases of coronavirus, whose appearances were most missed.
The visitors were breached by City’s first relentless attack as Bernardo Silva’s low cross found De Bruyne completely unmarked to sweep home from inside the box.
Despite their dominance over United when it comes to finishing high up the table in recent years, City have won only one of the last seven derbys at the Etihad.
United relentlessly rejoiced at the counter-attack in that run, and the pace of Jadon Sancho and Anthony Elanga created problems once again.
Sancho left City at the age of 17 and grew tired of waiting for a route to the first team to make his name at Borussia Dortmund.
The England international took time to find his footing at United after returning to the Premier League for a whopping £73m ($97m) fee.
But Sancho Ralph Rangnik’s interim spell has been one of the few successes in charge and produced a fine finish in the far corner in 22 minutes.
United captain Harry Maguire has faced more reports of questions this week from members of his own team about whether he is of the standard required to lead the side.
More criticism is sure to come Maguire’s way as he was twice misquoted for City’s second.
Phil Foden looped the ball over his England teammate and when he was denied by a brilliant save from David de Gea, the loose ball finally found its way home to de Bruyne.
Rangnik’s men still had to maintain a period of pressure to get to half-time in the game.
Foden fired wide from a perfect De Bruyne pass before more de Gea Virs prevented Riyad Mahrez from finding the bottom corner.
One-way traffic continued after the break and prevented an even more embarrassing route this season when De Gea was United’s best performer.
The Spaniard captured De Bruyne’s fierce free-kick before Mahrez blazed through the edge of the field.
But United didn’t learn their lesson as the Algerian was left unmarked at the edge of the box when he was pulled out of De Bruyne’s corner and connected sweetly to find the away corner.
De Gea was forced to make further saves from Mahrez and Joo Cancillo.
But even that couldn’t stop Mahrez’s powerful attempt to rub salt into the joint wounds, as VAR didn’t get the City winger offside.
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