Former United skipper and current Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville admits Manchester City are miles ahead of United, and should have won Sunday’s derby by a bigger margin.

David Silva and Nicolas Otamendi scored from set-pieces as City won 2-1 to move 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League table, but Neville believes the Sky Blues are on a different level to their Manchester rivals.

United had chances to level the game up but failed to do so, and Neville admits anything but a win for City would have been unfair.

“I thought City were a different level to United,” he told Super Sunday.

“I thought in the first half United looked anxious when they were on the ball when they won it back. In the second half United didn’t have the quality.

“It’s tough to do what City have done today; to go to Chelsea and play like they did and come here and play like they have, showing authority and confidence.

“The goals were scruffy and Jose won’t believe they’ve conceded two goals from set pieces, but not many teams have come here in the last 25 or 30 years and dominated like that.

“You are talking about Barcelona or Real Madrid. Not many teams come here and do that. I even saw some United fans at the end clapping off the City manager and players.

“Seventy thousand United fans have walked out of there today thinking the best team have won.

“You can’t have too many complaints. It could have been three or four in the end.”

“After about five minutes I thought ‘this is going to be a long day’.

“I’ve watched City numerous times this season and if you let Silva and De Bruyne get on the ball and control the rhythm of the game you’re in trouble.

“I thought Mourinho would have man-marked them and got in their faces. Let them go to Fabian Delph, Otamendi, Kyle Walker or even Fernandinho but those two shouldn’t be getting the number of passes in the game.

“To me, when they influence the game you are having a nightmare and they influenced the game far too much.

“Have Nemanja Matic and Ander Herrera got the legs to do it? I wondered whether Jesse Lingard would go and mark Silva and if Herrera would go and man-mark De Bruyne and stop those two.

“They are so exceptional those two, they are at a different level. Follow them and stop them.”
[Quotes via Sky Sports]