Man City 3-1 Man United: Park's brace moves Gareth Taylor's side top of the WSL

The gulf in class between Manchester’s two clubs has been evident on the men’s side for some time. City are 16 points ahead of United in the Premier League and every season the gap only seems to get bigger. On the women’s side too, City have dominated. But last year the red half had overtaken their rivals for the first time. Marc Skinner’s side finished second and qualified for Europe while City finished fourth, missing out for the first time since 2014.

But United are starting to feel like a one-hit wonder. City, meanwhile, are back to their show-stopping best.

Two goals from Jess Park and one from Bunny Shaw, whose strike saw her become City’s all-time leading goalscorer, was enough to make it back-to-back derby wins for Gareth Taylor’s side.

An own goal from Kerstin Casparij proved to be little more than a consolation for the visitors. Park, who got the assist for Shaw’s goal, will no doubt have impressed on-looking England manager Sarina Wiegman.

For United, the reality is that they had come into this derby with little more than pride to play for. They were 12 points off top spot before Saturday’s game and that gap is now 15. Should Arsenal beat Aston Villa on Sunday, they will be nine points outside the European places. This has been a worrying season of decline for Marc Skinner and every week it feels more unlikely that he will still be here come the start of next.

As United often do in these big games, they started strongly before fading away. They had the first opportunity when Geyse drove down the right and cut-back for Nikita Parris, but Khiara Keating was alert to push the ball around the post.

Geyse then sent a volley wide when she should really have hit the target.

City started to get on top as the half