Noisy neighbours turn the volume up to 11

Manchester City 6, Manchester United 1
MARIO Balotelli may have his own idea of what constitutes noisy neighbours.

But whether the fireworks being thrown over the fence are literal or metaphorical, one thing is clear: these days it’s Manchester City doing all of the chucking.

The extraordinary finish to the derby, in which Balotelli’s second sparked a five–goal rout in the last half–hour, should leave nobody in any doubt over the title credentials of Roberto Mancini’s men.

True, United had Jonny Evans sent off when they still harboured hopes of turning the match around. And true, the late goal rush may have seriously flattered the degree of City’s superiority.

But whichever way you want to dress it up, the result will send shock–waves round the football world. This represents the seismic shift in the Barclays Premier League’s balance of power that City have been threatening for some time. No longer can they be regarded as newly–minted upstarts whose galaxy of talent cannot be expected to gel enough to seriously challenge the established order.

No longer will they be mocked for their apparent failure to keep all their superstar players happy. Already the Tevez affair is being consigned to distant City memory.

Forget the day they broke the bank to bring in Robinho. This was the day City indisputably arrived at world football’s top table.

It wasn’t just the sheer weight of goals which made the case for Mancini’s men. It was the manner in which they eased into their half–time lead and so resolutely snuffed out United’s attacking threat.

The big–money men got all the glory. But it was a victory built on the foundations of a magnificent central defensive performance from Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott, who rendered Wayne Rooney an also–ran.

Full–backs Gael Clichy and Micah Richards were also monumental, controlling the game long before Evans’ unnecessary red card gave the glory boys their chance to wrap the game up in such devastating fashion.

Balotelli, amazingly a much–needed source of calmness in the furore which followed Tevez’s refusal to play in Munich, shrugged off his well–documented personal problems to produce another performance of maturity and talent.

Further goals from Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and David Silva were merely the icing on a very thick cake: Darren Fletcher’s 81st consolation for United a painful afterthought.

It is a truly calamitous result for Sir Alex Ferguson, who is now forced to confront the reality that his side’s apparently bright start to the new season was founded on very shaky foundations.

Ferguson will surely find it hard to reconcile the permanent sense of one–upmanship he has been able to hold over his cross–city rivals for so many decades with the astonishing result.

The impact of the outcome will resonate around Old Trafford — and perhaps more pertinently the Etihad Stadium across town – for generations to come.

The “noisy neighbours’ have just turned up the decibels to a whole new level.