Before this match, the latest reading on the patented Sports Hackery swing-o-meter (which measures received wisdom as it oscillates wildly whichever way the wind's blowing) suggested that Sven-Goran Eriksson is actually a man of rare talent whose reputation has been unfairly sullied after his stint at Soho Square.
Let's just quickly take stock here. Eriksson's achievements of the last ten years run to this: one Coppa Italia, a trophy nobody cares about, no matter how many times Eriksson likens winning it for Lazio to picking up the World Cup; a scudetto landed thanks to Internazionale blowing up in spectacular fashion and Juventus being forced to play the last game of their season in a swimming pool; and a 5-1 win in Germany, a result which Ged Houllier can take credit for, as a result of the tedious hoof-and-chase pack-drills he drummed into Michael Owen and Emile Heskey.
Congratulations to Manchester City for beating Manchester United today, but they were little short of appalling in a ridiculously one-sided match - and no, results don't count for everything - so let's hold fire on the Eriksson reappraisals for a while. At least until he stops sticking ten men behind the ball and hoping for the best.
Still, Manchester City and Eriksson not very good... it's like shooting fish in a barrel, isn't it? What was perhaps more striking today was a couple of things about Manchester United.
First, they're slowly turning into Arsenal. United had preposterous amounts of possession today, but rarely outside of Highbury do so many chances get spurned because there was no one in the box to take advantage of excellent approach play. One goal in three games: last season, United were dragged out of a hole countless times by the individual brilliance of Cristiano Ronaldo; without him, they sorely lack the cutting edge of a championship side.
Additionally, they're slowly turning into Chelsea. Jose Mourinho's side get pelters for an overly aggressive approach, but they've got nothing on the way United are acting at the moment.
Within two minutes of today's game, Wes Brown upended the excellent Martin Petrov with the sort of scything challenge that, had Robbie Savage or Momo Sissoko executed it, would have seen the referee flashing a yellow card; it took two further lunges and dissent from Brown before he was booked.
Owen Hargreaves and Paul Scholes then embarked on a Cameroon-on-Cannigia style sustained assault on Elano, before Rio Ferdinand put the tin lid on United's petulant performance: hauling down Coruka, he then sat on top of the Croat, put his hand on his throat in the process of getting up, then had the bare-faced cheek to throw a hissy fit at an opponent who had contributed little more to the incident than simply exist.
United are, at the time of writing, a point behind Arsenal and Liverpool having played two games more, and four behind Chelsea having played an extra match. One way or another, in a couple of hours, that situation is only going to get worse. The received wisdom suggests it's only a matter of time before they click. But until they get Ronaldo - and Louis Saha - back in the side quicksmart, their season could be over almost before it's begun.
United seven points behind City? Fergie seven behind Eriksson? That it's come to this.
