Manchester Derby - match report:

Hello and welcome to my latest blog post, a match report from Monday's pivotal Manchester derby between 1st placed Manchester United and 2nd placed Manchester City.

The gap at the top of the table between these two sides was 15 points before this match, and a win for the hosts at Old Trafford would virtually seal their record 20th EPL title, with games to spare.

The match started off slowly for both sides, with it being goal-less at half-time.
Manchester United failed to press the City defence as much, but were trying to dominate possession and dictate the pace of play.

In the second half however, the match sprung to life in the 51st minute when English defensive midfielder James Milner got past the United defence before unleashing a powerful drive from 20 yards out which beat David De Gea into the bottom right hand corner of the net. 

Powerful drive: English midfielder James Milner breaks the deadlock in the 51st minute to give City the lead.

Breakthrough: James Milner celebrates his opener with his City team-mates.

The match had flipped on its head but United were desperate to get back into the match.

A free-kick outside the box from Robin van Persie was whipped into the 6-yard box, where Phil Jones rose up in the air to head the ball past Joe Hart into the net. Replays showed that the ball hit Manchester City captain and defender Vincent Kompany on the back as it went into the net.

Equaliser: van Persie's delivery fell to Jones whose header deflected off Kompany into the net to make it 1-1.

There we go: Jones celebrates his deflected effort to give United hope of getting back into the match.

Both sides then went looking for the eventual winner, with City getting it in the 78th minute thanks to Argentine striker Sergio Aguero who used great skill, awareness and movement to get past three United defenders before striking the ball well past De Gea into the net.

Amazing move: Sergio Aguero gets past the United defence to strike past De Gea and score the winner for City.

Nice finish: Aguero is mobbed by his team-mates after his goal.

United went on the ultra attack after the goal, but City defended well to hold on for a historic win at Old Trafford.

The gap between United and City has now closed slightly to 12 points, but United still have the bragging rights in terms of the title hold at the moment with 7 games to go.     

Here are the games that United and City both have to play;

United:       

Stoke City (a) - Sunday, 14th of April
West Ham (a) - Wednesday, 17th of April
Aston Villa (h) - Monday, 22nd of April
Arsenal (a) - Sunday, 28th of April
Chelsea (h) - Saturday, 4th of May
Swansea (h) - Sunday, 12th of May

West Brom (a) - Sunday 19th of May

City:

Wigan (h) - Wednesday, 17th of April
Tottenham (a) - Sunday, 21st of April
West Ham (h) - Saturday, 27th of April
Swansea (a) - Saturday, 4th of May
Reading (a) - Sunday, 12th of May
Norwich (h) - Sunday, 19th of May

Thank you for reading my EPL Blog, I apologise for not being able to publish any posts during the weekend.

I will have an EPL Round-Up for everyone soon, don't you worry.