MANCHESTER: Surely nothing can stop Manc­hester City now.

The race for the Premier League title is turning into a procession after City beat fierce rivals Manchester United 2-1 at Old Trafford on Sunday, extending their lead to 11 points in a record-breaking start to the season.

City’s victory marked the first time a team have won 14 consecutive English top-flight games in the same season, thanks to Nicolas Otamendi’s second-half winner and ended United’s run of 40 home games unbeaten in all competitions.

No team has ever had this many points 46 after 16 games in the Premier League. To put City’s form into context, 46 points would have secured eighth place in the league last season.

It’s only early December.

Pep Guardiola’s team is doing it in style, too. Having already beaten Liverpool 5-0 and overwhelmed Chelsea in a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge, City came to Old Trafford to play the other member of the current top four and had 65 percent possession and almost twice the number of shots.

For most of the first half and in the final stages of the second half, United were overrun in a stadium where they hadn’t lost since September 2016 against City.

Guardiola’s latest success at the expense of old rival Jose Mourinho could drain much of the drama from the title race as it would take an epic meltdown for City to surrender their substantial lead.

Mourinho conceded the title is City’s, saying: “Probably, yes. The advantage is a very good one.”

Given their eye-catching style of play, the irony was that City’s two goals couldn’t have been scrappier. Both came from defensive mistakes from United striker Romelu Lukaku at set pieces, with David Silva (43rd minute_ and Nicolas Otamendi (54th) the gleeful recipients with close-range finishes.

Marcus Rashford equalised in first-half injury time, also benefiting from a defensive mistake from Otamendi, and Mourinho was left to bemoan the failure of Michael Oliver to award a penalty for what he thought was a trip by Otamendi on Ander Herrera. Instead, Herrera was booked for simulation.

“Manchester City are a very good team and they are protected by the luck, and the gods of football are behind them,” Mourinho said of the decision.

“My first reaction is I feel sorry for referee Michael Oliver because he had a very good match but unfortunately he made an important mistake.

“We can speak about anything you want, bring any football theory, bring any stats, ball possession, you can bring anything you want. But like last season, there is a huge penalty [not awarded] in a crucial moment of the game. .. Michael was unlucky because it was a clear penalty.”

Guardiola dismissed Mourinho’s complaints and told the United chief to stop making excuses.

“Last season it was the same — we won here and it was the referee. Today as well. Yesterday he spoke about the referee. We are an honest team,” said the Spaniard.

“We had 75 percent ball possession, which means we wanted to play. We came here and did that. We won because we were better. We are still in December, if we have 11 points [lead] when we play the second derby in April then maybe I will tell you that we have the title.”

And in a nod to his critics, Guardiola added: “I am happy because so many people say you cannot win in England playing like this.”

Set pieces were supposed to be United’s strength and City’s weakness. So even Guardiola accepted the peculiarity of City’s goals coming from that route.

For Silva’s opener, Lukaku was tussling with Otamendi at a corner and only succeeded in deflecting Kevin De Bruyne’s inswinging delivery right into the path of Silva to dispatch from inside the six-yard box.

Mourinho’s team were gifted an equaliser in first-half stoppage time when City defender Fabian Delph made a hash of clearing and Rashford pounced to slot past Ederson.

But United returned the favour with an even more farcical piece of defending.

Silva’s free-kick should have been cleared by Lukaku, but instead the Belgian slammed a panicked clearance into the back of United team-mate Chris Smalling and the ball looped towards Argentine defender Otamendi, who stretched to fire home.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2017