And it also ended in blood when a disillusioned fan threw a coin from the stands that cut United’s defender Rio Ferdinand over his left eye.  The game, between the top two sides in English soccer, appears worldly; yet it somehow remains as intrinsic and as internecine to Manchester as it has been since the very first derby, in November 1881.  Sunday’s result leaves United on top of the pile, six points in front of City in the Premier League standings. It avenges, to some extent, the fact that City had won both league matches last season, humiliating United, 6-1, at Old Trafford.  But United’s veteran manager, Alex Ferguson, had said revenge is not the right word, that if a team goes onto the field with that in mind it loses its focus and its purpose. He may believe that, and the players of his team may try to convince the public that they are too professional to be swayed by emotions.  The evidence of the contest, at times furious in its sway, suggested otherwise. It looked for every minute as if the team in red was hell bent on overturning the odds that last season gave Manchester’s blue side, City, the Premiership title by the most slender margin in English history.  People should know that Fergie is a man who doesn’t do defeat twice.  His team selection mirrored his own spirit. United has been vulnerable lately in defense, so the coach might have gone to the neighbor’s house, now called the Etihad Stadium, with a cautious lineup.  Not a bit of it. United went for pace and adventure on the flanks. For the right, despite recent injury, Ferguson selected the Ecuadorean flier Antonio Valencia. For the left, he opted for Ashley Young. And not only did those two run like whippets out of the traps, but the United fullbacks, Rafael and Patrice Evra had the pace and the adventure to sometimes sprint beyond their wingers.  It bears repeating that Alex Ferguson’s battle cry when the game is really big is “go for their bloody throats.” He has been United’s team boss for 26 years, and though the years have inevitably changed his teams, the approach is essentially the same.  City, though, has changed even more. A billion pounds of investment by its Abu Dhabi owner, an Italian coach in Roberto Mancini, world-class players from eight different countries in its lineup make City a global entity.  Imagine, then, the shock to its system to be two goals down inside half an hour. Imagine the feelings of light-blue supporters who had not seen their team beaten at home in 37 matches stretching back two years.  The first goal came after Mario Balotelli, the big, brooding Italian surprisingly chosen for City, carelessly gave possession away near United’s goal. In the blink of an eye, or several eyes, the ball was moved like a stone from a sling, with Robin van Persie sending Young away down the left, and Young passing it to Wayne Rooney.  Rooney was chided recently by his coach for not scoring enough. He didn’t hesitate this time and, though he slightly mistimed his kick, it sent the ball skidding and squirming just inside goalie Joe Hart’s right-hand post.  Visibly shocked, turned from the front foot to the back, City took an age to regain its momentum. And before it did so, Rafael had overlapped on the right and cut the ball back into the path of Rooney who, this time with measured aplomb, side-footed it into the same corner of the net.  City’s response came moments after halftime when Mancini was so exasperated by Balotelli’s laziness that he angrily gesticulated from the sideline and replaced the Italian with the Argentine Carlos Tévez.  “Mario,” the coach later said, “has to think about his job. He can’t continue to think that he can throw his talent away.”  Balotelli, 22, became a father a week ago. And many are asking when, or if, the new daddy will settle down and make something of his gifts of fantastic skill inside a huge physical frame.  Without him, with Tévez and Sergio Agüero and David Silva buzzing energetically around in attack, it was a different City in the second half. A City that pulled back the deficit, and by the admission of Ferguson, deservedly so.  However, before that happened, literally seconds before, United was inches away from going three up. Van Persie, using his talent as a servant for the team in a way that Balotelli might study, hit a wonderful shot with his less favored right foot.  It struck the inside of the far post. Young put the rebound into the net, but was ruled offside. And in an instant, City did to United what had earlier been done to it. A swift break the length of the field ended with United’s goalie David De Gea making two sprawling stops, on shots from Tévez and Silva.  But when the ball ran to Yaya Touré, the big Ivorian struck it hard and low, and inside the same post where United had scored. Two-one, game on.  Four minutes from the end of normal time, Pablo Zabaleta, wearing the armband after City’s captain Vincent Kompany went off injured, equalized with a superb low half volley.  A tie might have been a fair result, but United does not tie games.  The match officials signaled four extra minutes for injuries and stoppages. United needed two of them to snatch victory out of the stalemate. Awarded a free kick way out to the right of the penalty zone, Rooney asked van Persie what should we do?  “I’ll take a shot,” replied the Dutchman. Shoot he did, and when Samir Nasri turned his back and hung out his right leg, the shot that was already fierce took a deflection that spun it high and wide of the reach of Hart.  United took the spoils, a home fan lost his head, and City now stands second, for the time being, in the table.
It was a tumultuous soccer match in Manchester on Sunday, settled by a winning goal in stoppage time that gave United a 3-2 victory on City's turf.