Manchester United Wins 7-Goal Thriller Over Manchester City

There are times when the marketing aces at the Barclay's Premier League home office must get a little tired of constantly telling anyone who will listen that the league is the greatest in the world. Surely partisans in Barcelona and Madrid would argue otherwise.

However smug these assertions might come off, the Premier League did get another amazing game to add to its resume and worldwide popularity in the form of Manchester United's last-minute 4-3 derby victory over Manchester City at Old Trafford. As far as a 90-minute soccer game goes, it's hard to ask for more than anything than this match because it had pretty much everything.

---

---

Early goals? Late goals? Players making returns to their former club? Controversy?

This match had it all in spades, all wrapped inside the cauldron of a century old-rivalry that's only gotten more intense since Manchester City's takeover and mega-cash infusion.

Perhaps those watching could have expected a wild match when Wayne Rooney powered in from close range inside of two minutes to give United a 1-0 advantage.

The lead didn't last long, when ex-United striker Carlos Tevez made keeper Ben Foster look silly in the 16th minute. Foster attempted to come out to clear a ball, then decided against it, went to ground, tried to pluck it off Tevez's foot, before the Argentine squared it across to Gareth Barry, who ripped a low shot into the open net.

After the restart the unlikely form of Darren Fletcher scored his first of two goals on the day to make it 2-1 in favor of the Red Devils in the 49th. The huge crowd at Old Trafford barely had time to serenade the visiting fans before Craig Bellamy converted from outside the box on a pass from Tevez making it 2-2.

United appeared to have a winner in the 80th minute on a close-range header from Fletcher.

Yet instead of a ho-hum final 10 minutes (plus stoppage time, mind you) the remainder of the game will likely be talked about in debate between fans for years to come.

On the verge of injury time, City intercepted a lazy clearance from Rio Ferdinand and were able to spring Bellamy as the Welshman proceeded to blow past the England international and squeeze a shot by Foster at the near post.

Conventional wisdom would figure that the match was over at 3-3.

Wrong. Originally slated for four minutes of stoppage time, the match ended up having closer to six, to the disdain of a apoplectic City coach Mark Hughes.

Everyone inside Old Trafford must have thought that Wayne Rooney's 94th-ish minute free kick from midfield would have been United's last chance, especially after City cleared it back with ease. Rooney, though, kept the ball in and somehow it squirted over to Ryan Giggs, who threaded a ball into Michael Owen, who beat City keeper Shay Given from close to give United the almost surreal victory.

The major talking point, naturally, will be how much stoppage time the match should have had. Referee Martin Atkinson will surely come under some scrutiny for allowing the match to stretch out so long. In his defense, he did need to take into account the post-Bellamy equalizer celebration by City and then the sneaky extra time substitution of Michael Carrick for Anderson made by Sir Alex Ferguson. Either way, expect Manchester United conspiracy theorists to have a field day with this one.

Lost in the immediate shuffle is that barring the last second stunner, the new-look City did go toe-to-toe with the four-time defending Premier League champions and likely should have walked away Sunday with at least a point. Instead, City suffers its first blemish of the season and United has quietly sneaked up to the top spot in the table pending the result of Chelsea/Tottenham later Sunday.

Finally, if you're a neutral fan, you'll probably be hard pressed to find a more thrilling, exciting match any time soon. And you don't need anyone from Premier League HQ's propaganda division to tell you that, either.