Elliot Anderson has lifted the lid on the scenes inside the Manchester City dressing room after Sunday’s derby win over Manchester United, revealing that Phil Foden was “bouncing” despite being sent off in the first half.
City claimed a 1-0 victory at Old Trafford through an Erling Haaland goal that survived a lengthy VAR review, a result made all the more striking by the fact that Enzo Maresca’s side spent more than an hour of the game with ten men.
Foden was shown a straight red card in the 23rd minute for kicking out at United captain Bruno Fernandes, becoming only the second City player sent off in a Manchester derby, following Bernardo Corradi’s dismissal back in 2006.
Bouncing in the changing room
Anderson, who was named Man of the Match for his performance in central midfield, was asked whether Foden had mixed feelings about the win given that he did not see out the game.
His answer left no doubt about the mood among the players once the final whistle went.
“He was gutted to not play in the full game, but he was bouncing up and down the changing room. As we all were.”
The image of Foden celebrating wildly despite his personal disappointment captures what was, by any measure, an unlikely afternoon for City.
Reduced to ten men before the half-hour mark away at their fiercest rivals, Maresca’s side somehow found a way to make the extra man count against them rather than the other way round, extending their unbeaten start to the season under their new head coach.
A red card that changed the game
Anderson, who arrived at the Etihad Stadium in the summer in a club-record £116 million move from Nottingham Forest, was candid about how much harder Foden’s dismissal made the task facing City.
Speaking after collecting his Man of the Match award, he explained how the team had to adapt on the fly once they went down to ten men.
“[The red card] made the game a lot harder and we’ve all come together and it shows real fighting leadership from the lads. It wasn’t ideal, Phil going off, but we all fought for it. It changed the way of playing, but we did really well at it.”
United threatened to punish Manchester City‘s numerical disadvantage but could not find a breakthrough, twice striking the woodwork through Marcus Rashford and Kobbie Mainoo.
Instead, it was Haaland who settled the contest, tapping in from close range in a passage of play that sparked controversy of its own, with United furious that Enzo Fernández was not judged to have interfered with play from an offside position in the build-up.
For Anderson, such a performance in his first taste of the fixture was a landmark moment in a whirlwind start to life at his new club. Handed a start in a game of this magnitude within weeks of a British-record transfer, the 23-year-old repaid the faith shown in him by City’s recruitment team with a display good enough to earn the top individual honour on the day.
City next turn their attention to the next match as they look to build on their perfect start, with the mood in the camp, by Anderson’s account, in fine spirits heading into the international break.
