Derbies can often times be the culmination of trends; the apex of stories bubbling up waiting to explode. The Manchester Derby today was no exception. Watching Manchester United simple tear Manchester City to shreds after Sergio Aguero’s early opener confirmed two trends that had been emerging slowly since the calendar turned to March: Manchester United are rising fast, and City are falling even faster.

Manchester City have been trending downwards since Christmas. The early warning signs came in a 2-0 home loss to Arsenal in January, and the calamitous fall only continued from there. They did salvage a draw at Stamford Bridge, but they’ve lost at Burnley and Crystal Palace, been dumped out unceremoniously of both the FA Cup and Champions League, and have now fallen flat on their face in their most important game of the season. Now they are even in some danger of failing to qualify for the Champions League altogether, something that seemed inconceivable mere months ago.

After trying a myriad of different tactical formations and lineups, and seeing most of them fail, Louis Van Gaal has settled on something rather shocking: The simple approach. Sliding Daley Blind to full back and re-inserting Michael Carrick into the XI has simplified Manchester United’s approach. They might not pla scintillating football as City can do at times (as they did in the first 10 minutes today for example), but sometimes the raw simplicity of how Manchester United can attack can be just as captivating. Juan Mata has finally justified his price tag, Ashley Young has found incredible form at the right time, and Wayne Rooney has done a magnificent job leading the line. Despite the summer spending spree, it’s mainly been United’s longer serving hands that have propelled them to third in the table.

Meanwhile, those wearing the sky blue are hanging their heads. Their problems have started directly from the back, especially with Vincent Kompany’s rather staggering loss of form. He could have easily been sent off in the first half, ended up getting subbed off at halftime, and was replaced by Eliaquim Mangala, who looks out of his depth. Players that haven’t deserved starts like Jesus Navas, and to a lesser extent Fernandinho, have been continually given places in the XI and at the cost of City’s form. The issue is, there is nobody on the bench that can give the impact City need at the critical moments, and the problems with the squad that had been bubbling under the surface for some time have now erupted.

After spending months questioning Louis Van Gaal, his method, tactics and man management, United are beginning to reap the rewards for their consistency and approach. It might have taken longer than it needed to, and it might have come at the expense of their thought-to-be glittering prizes from last summer, but Manchester United finally look a bit like the United of old. Whereas Manchester City looking nothing like the Champions of seasons past, and are now in danger of falling out of the Top 4 which would further compound the major problems City are already staring down the barrel of.

Derbies can sometimes be games to discard because of the emotion involved. Other times they are the culmination of events and trends. The latter was true today.

Those trends sing the praises of the half of Manchester wearing red and lament the fortunes of those wearing sky blue.