The first match between Manchester United and Manchester City in the 2009–10 Premier League football season was played on 20 September 2009 at Old Trafford, Trafford. It was the 153rd Manchester derby between the two clubs. Heading into the game, both teams were level on points having both won four matches in the opening weeks of the season, and big-spending City were seen as a new threat to United, who had been the dominant force in English football for over 15 years.

During the summer transfer window, striker Carlos Tevez had controversially left United to join City, and the match marked his return to face the club he had had much success with during his two-year stint. His replacement at United was veteran striker Michael Owen, much maligned for his injury record and status as an unwanted free agent. Throughout the summer and in the build-up to the match, Alex Ferguson and his former player Mark Hughes, managers of United and City respectively, engaged in a bitter war of words through the media in an attempt to undermine the other. Ferguson, who had managed United for almost 23 years, made some of his most famous and scathing remarks towards City during this period.

In the match itself, Wayne Rooney opened the scoring early on, but a mistake from Ben Foster in the United goal allowed Tevez to assist Gareth Barry for City's equaliser. Two goals each from United's Darren Fletcher and City's Craig Bellamy meant that the score was 3–3 going into an allotted four minutes of injury time, before Owen secured the win for the home side in the 96th minute. After the match, a victorious Ferguson described it as "the best derby of all time". In 2012, the match was voted as the best of the first two decades of the Premier League in the Premier League 20 Seasons Awards, and it is viewed as the first in a series of games that helped the rivalry progress from a small local derby to a fixture between two elite teams. The goal by Owen and the all-round performance of Ryan Giggs, who provided three assists during the game, are regarded as career highlights for each player.

It was the first of four meetings between the two teams during the season; they contested a two-legged League Cup semi-final in January 2010, followed by the reverse league fixture at the City of Manchester Stadium in April. United won three of the four games, scoring an injury-time winner on each occasion. Tevez played a central role as the rivalry increased, scoring or assisting a goal in each of the first three fixtures, and on multiple occasions clashed with United club captain Gary Neville both on the pitch and through the media. Each game was marred by incidents that warranted police attention, resulting in several arrests and an increased security presence at each match.

Background

The Manchester derby is a fixture contested between two football teams from the Greater Manchester region: Manchester United and Manchester City. Before this fixture, there had been 152 meetings between the two sides, the first held in 1881. The non-competitive fixture ended in a 3–0 victory for Newton Heath (who later became Manchester United) against West Gorton (Manchester City). The first competitive meeting was in the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup in 1891, which Newton Heath won 5–1. The most recent match between the two sides had been at Old Trafford in May 2009, when United won 2–0 thanks to goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. In total, United had recorded 62 victories in competitive meetings with their rivals; City won 41 of the matches and there had been 49 draws. Since the mid-1970s, United had been the better-performing of the Manchester clubs; they finished above City every year from 1990, and at one stage were two divisions above their local rivals. Whereas United had won a host of major trophies, including 11 league titles and three European trophies, during the previous 20 years, City had not won a major trophy for more than 30 years, and had spent 10 out of 19 seasons between 1983 and 2002 outside the top flight.

"Welcome to Manchester": Tevez joins City In the summer transfer window before the fixture, Argentine striker Tevez had left United after spending two years with the club, and joined City in a controversial transfer involving his third-party owners, Media Sport Investment. Tevez believed United's supporters would accept the transfer and not view him as a traitor, and blamed United manager Sir Alex Ferguson for his departure from the club, claiming Ferguson did not contact him about extending his initial two-year deal. In his 2015 book Leading: Learning from Life and My Years at Manchester United, Ferguson blamed Tevez's advisor Kia Joorabchian for the failure to sign Tevez to a new deal, writing that "it just seemed like we were renting him until Joorabchian could cut a better deal elsewhere".

Following the transfer, City unveiled a billboard in Manchester city centre featuring an image of Tevez and the phrase "Welcome to Manchester". The billboard was the idea of City's chief brand and marketing officer David Pullan, who persuaded the club's chief executive Garry Cook to run the billboard. Jeffrey Marcus of American newspaper The New York Times wondered if City's intent was to show that Tevez had found a different city than "the poseurish Manchester represented by the nationally and internationally renowned United, who count more supporters abroad than they do at home". The billboard was designed by New York-based advertising agency Anomaly, who were paid £30,000. The stunt led to Ferguson labelling City "a small club with a small mentality"; he also said that Liverpool and Chelsea were United's main competitors for the title, rather than City. City manager Mark Hughes responded by saying the billboard was a "bit of fun", and regarded Ferguson's comments as a sign of respect.

Having let both Ronaldo and Tevez go in the same transfer window, United opted to sign Michael Owen on a free transfer after he was released by Newcastle United. Writing in The Guardian newspaper, Manchester-based journalist Daniel Taylor described the move as "astonishing"; Owen was a former Liverpool player with a long history of injuries, and had only been linked with clubs in the lower half of the league. Ferguson claimed he opted for Owen as other players, such as David Villa and Sergio Agüero, would have been too expensive. After United had scored just one goal in their opening two matches (a 1–0 win against Birmingham City, and a 1–0 defeat to newly promoted Burnley), Ferguson and Owen were criticised by sections of the media and fans. Owen scored his first United goal – his first in competitive football for more than seven months – in the club's third league match of the campaign, a 5–0 win against Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium, after which he said he "expect[ed] to go on and score more goals in the United shirt".

Pre-match

Heading into the match, United were in second place in the Premier League table after five matches, trailing Chelsea by three points. City were in fourth place, level on points with United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa, but with a game in hand over all but Liverpool. United had won four of their five matches, while City had won all of their first four fixtures; a 4–2 victory over Arsenal had made it their best start to a season since 1961. The match was selected by Sky Sports for their televised coverage, with the fixture moved to a Sunday afternoon and a kick-off time of 13:30BST.

In the week building up to the match, which was described by the BBC as "one of the most eagerly awaited derby matches in years", both Ferguson and Hughes, as well as players from both clubs, made comments about their opponents in the press. While admitting the rivalry had "gone up a notch" in the prior months, and that City had become "a bit cocky", Ferguson said that matches against Liverpool would always be "the derby game". When asked whether United could ever go into the fixture as underdogs, Ferguson responded, "not in my lifetime". Hughes stated he was "amused" by the irritation City were causing their rivals, and said that Ferguson was "sick and tired" of being asked questions by the media about City rather than his own side. Hughes, who played for United in two separate spells in the 1980s and 1990s, when the club were attempting to overthrow Liverpool, echoed a comment once made by Ferguson by saying "it would be my greatest achievement to knock United off the No.1 spot because it's a huge challenge", and that to do so they would need to beat United.

Ferguson warned Tevez to expect a hostile reception from the United fans if he played, but said it did not bother him whether Tevez was involved, and was pleased that their "star player", Emmanuel Adebayor, was unavailable due to a suspension. Hughes responded by saying United were weaker as they had lost "two significant players" in Ronaldo and Tevez without replacing them. Hughes also thought United's performances early in the season had suffered due to the departures. Tevez said he believed the United fans would not boo him as he thought they did not consider him to be a traitor, and predicted City would win if they could capitalise on defensive errors.

United defender Patrice Evra said he believed the fixture was "more special this season", and that it would be an "amazing game", and joked that if United fans booed his friend Tevez, he would join in. Evra acknowledged that City were now an ambitious club, saying that United were determined to stop them becoming "kings" of Manchester. Evra's teammates Nemanja Vidić and Rio Ferdinand both agreed that City had become a more fierce rival. City midfielder Nigel de Jong said that Manchester was "buzzing" ahead of the match as there were now two big clubs in the city, while defender Kolo Touré and midfielder Stephen Ireland were both motivated by the prospect of victory to put City ahead of United in the table. City defender Sylvinho said the team's victory against Arsenal had given them extra confidence.

Match Team selection

Manchester United had several players out of contention for the match. Paul Scholes was serving a one-match suspension, and Rio Ferdinand was considered a doubt with a calf injury, although he did eventually recover to start the match. Gabriel Obertan (calf), Rafael (shoulder), Edwin van der Sar (finger) and Owen Hargreaves (knee) were all ruled out through injury. Leading goalscorer Wayne Rooney, who had scored five times in United's opening five league matches, started in a two-man strike partnership with Dimitar Berbatov. Park Ji-sung replaced the suspended Scholes as the only change to United's starting line-up from their previous Premier League fixture against Tottenham, when he had been sent-off for two yellow cards.

Manchester City were without top scorer Emmanuel Adebayor, who had been charged with violent conduct in their last match against Arsenal and was serving a three-match ban that City had given up contesting. He was replaced by Tevez, who had been an injury doubt but was fit enough to start on his return to his former club, in the only change for City. Robinho (ankle), Michael Johnson (groin), Vincent Kompany (foot) and Roque Santa Cruz (knee) were City's injury absences.

Summary