Premier League: Manchester United Beat Man. City To Live Up To Solksjaer's Boast

Manchester United lived up to Ole Gunnar Solksjaer's boast that his team is bigger than Manchester City by claiming a 2-1 win over them at Etihad Stadium that has left the side lagging behind their title rivals Liverpool by 14 points in the race to defend the league title.

It has been an impressive week for United who defeated Tottenham by 2-1 on Wednesday that shortlived Jose Mourinho's winning start to assuming the role as Spurs' manager. The Norwegian who was under intense criticism over the performance is gradually coming out of the shadows.

Following in the stead of their previous, Marcus Rashford set the team up for the win after drawing a penalty which he converted and six minutes later Antonio Martial and Daniel James did a one-two pass to beat City's defense and the Frenchman smashed a left-footed shot home for United to stay clear by two goals.

City could have gone down by a much more wider margin as Rashford was close twice with the second attempt clipping the crossbar to bounce off into safety, earlier before Martial put United in a safe lead.

Likewise, City's appeal for a penalty offense for a handball by Fred was ruled out by the referee after the VAR review and played on in the trail until Nicolas Otamendi got a consolation goal with a header to a cross from Riyad Mahrez with five minutes remaining.

United have remained unbeaten in the last five league games and this victory moved the team up to the fifth position with five points away from the top four.

"We will remember this one," said Solksjaer. "They are an unbelievable team and to get a result and defend like we did and create many chances. We should have been three to four up but for some good goalkeeping."

The scoreline, however, could have been leveled by Mahrez in the last minutes but David de Gea brilliant save kept United in the lead. It will City's second home league game defeat after their first to Wolverhampton by 2-0.