Can Ruben Amorim survive anymore embarrassments? Winners and losers as derby defeat leaves Man Utd boss hanging by a thread but has Erling Haaland looking back to his best for Man City

Erling Haaland showed he meant business on Sunday when he volleyed just wide in the first minute of the game, and even before he did score early in the second half, he demonstrated a massive improvement in his link-up play, producing some nice combinations with Jeremy Doku, Tijjani Reijnders and Bernardo Silva.

After the break he did what he does best, monstering defenders with pace and power to score with ruthless efficiency. Haaland gobbled up Luke Shaw for his first goal and embarrassed Harry Maguire for the second, leaving Altay Bayindir completely helpless with both strikes. He did show some mercy to the goalkeeper in between the goals, hitting the post with the goal gaping after United's disastrous playing out from the back gifted City another chance.

Haaland's double took him to 15 goals in his last 10 games for club and country, while it also made him the joint-top scorer in the Manchester derby in the Premier League era, with eight goals in seven games. Success in this city now runs through the big Norwegian.

While Haaland has averaged a goal in every Premier League home game since joining City, Amorim averages one point for every league match he has been in charge of United. That's 31 points in 31 games. Only eight of those have ended in victory for United, seven have been draws, and 16 have now been defeats. 

In basic terms, whenever United currently play a Premier League game, the most likely outcome is that they are going to lose. Amorim did have the honesty to concede that his was "not a record you should have at Manchester United", though he caveated his admission by adding: "You have no idea what happened during these months." 

The coach declined to say exactly what he meant, but he was effectively trying to shift the blame away from himself.  A counterpoint is that he has been allowed to reshape the squad in a way that few other coaches have, urging the club to remove prized homegrown assets like Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford and three of Erik ten Hag's most expensive signings in Andre Onana, Rasmus Hojlund and Antony. 

He has reshaped the squad but his team are serving up the same dire results, and rather than thinking of ways to adapt in a bid to get better results, Amorim is doubling down on his system and methods with little success.

When Foden ruled himself out of contention for September's England squad with an injury, there was a serious danger of there being no players from Manchester available to start the derby. However, the midfielder proved his fitness just in time to earn a place in Pep Guardiola's line up for a game that matters the most to him. And, as he so often does in this fixture, Foden made his mark. 

Upon scoring the opening goal, Foden flung himself into the crowd, and the moment had extra poignance on the day that City lost one of their most dedicated fans in Ricky Hatton. Foden admitted he had Hatton on his mind before the game and when he celebrated. "One hundred percent, I had extra motivation going into the game, it was for him and his family and for the people suffering right now," he said.

Guardiola praised his homegrown hero, who performed far below his usual level last season and whose start to this campaign has been blighted by fitness problems.

"We missed him so much and the season before he was the best player in the Premier League so we need him," the coach said. "Phil is the core, the heart of the club, from the academy and he loves City. To have him back is good news."

Benjamin Sesko had been conspicuous by his absence from the starting XI in United's opening three league games despite being the club's most expensive signing of the summer at £74 million ($100m). This, then, was his big moment, but to say Sesko did not answer the call would be putting it mildly.

He caused mild panic when he stabbed a shot at goal early in the first half, but it lacked the power to beat Gianluigi Donnarumma, and that proved to be the only positive thing he did. Sesko mostly looked lost as to what to do, not knowing where to run or how to try and get at City. The one time he did get behind the home defence when played in by Bryan Mbeumo, he used his arm to control the ball and still managed to overplay it, standing no chance of beating Donnarumma in the one-on-one.

Sesko's anonymous debut looked particularly bad when set against the performance of Haaland, especially given he has previously been spoken about in the same breath as the Norwegian given they both took the first big step of their careers at Red Bull Salzburg. And to make matters worse, at this stage he profiles as a downgrade on Hojlund after the Dane looked super-sharp while scoring on his Napoli debut.

Doku often struggles for consistencym and despite being in his third season at City he can never be sure whether he is going to start or not. He was benched for the previous two games against Tottenham and Brighton, but Omar Marmoush's injury on international duty gave Doku a way back into the line up on derby day and he seized the moment.

His trickery created City's first two goals, and the significance of his role in Foden's opener should not be understated because United were actually looking like the better team at that moment. Doku soon cut them down to size though, zipping past Shaw and getting to the byline before his first cross was blocked by Manuel Ugarte. He quickly got the ball back, however, and found Foden with his second attempt.

Doku's pace subsequently unlocked United again on numerous occasions while it was his through-ball that set Haaland free to make it 2-0. Doku's performance means he should be the top choice to stand in for Marmoush while the Egyptian is out, and there is a strong argument for him keeping his place thereafter if he can play like this more often. The derby, though, was only the start of a truly memorable day for Doku, who then went and got baptised.

Shaw was the longest-serving player from either club on the pitch on Sunday and boy did he look it. The left-back managed to contribute to all three of City's goals, making four missteps along the way.

He was like a rabbit in headlights when Doku came dribbling towards him in the first half and once the Belgian had gone past him, Shaw failed to track the other players near him, allowing Foden to run into the space he had vacated to score.

Roy Keane let rip on Sky Sports at half-time, lamenting that Shaw had "given up" and "thrown the towel in". Worse, though, was to come for the 30-year-old, who was bullied by Haaland for the second goal, standing absolutely no chance when the Norwegian powered towards him. He then gave the ball to Bernardo moments later, which led to Haaland scoring again.

Keane was livid at full-time, ramping up his criticism of the player who joined United from Southampton for £30m in 2014 and is somehow not only still at the club, but starting Manchester derbies.

"I think Shaw has been getting away with murder for years at United," added the former Red Devils' captain. "He's always injured, never quite fit, making excuses. Then he gets a few games and he's making decisions like he doesn't even want to tackle people."

The Manchester derby is an unforgiving environment in which to make your debut, as Claudio Bravo found out nine years ago. But Donnarumma has been playing in high-stakes games since he was 16 and his first derby went as well as it could have done, him keeping a clean sheet and producing a top-draw save from Mbeumo.

Given Donnarumma's experience, it should not have been surprising that he looked at home on Sunday. A lot has been made of the contrast between his footwork and that of his predecessor Ederson, but it should not be forgotten that the Brazilian made a litany of big mistakes in his final two seasons with City, often conceding the first shot he had faced.

Donnarumma, by contrast, struck fear into United's attackers, staring down Sesko when he ran towards him (the play would have been ruled out regardless for handball) before his show-stopping save from Mbeumo. The Italian will never be able to offer what Ederson did in terms of build-up play or those laser-like long balls, but on his first outing he proved himself to be a superior shot -stopper. If he can keep out the type of efforts his predecessor did not while producing more world-class saves, he will prove an excellent replacement, regardless of his deficiencies.

United's co-owner Ratcliffe was grinning from ear-to-ear after the previous derby at the Etihad, when Amad Diallo's late show snatched a 2-1 win for the visitors, but by the end of this game he could not bear to look. Seated in front of a scowling Ferguson, Ratcliffe could be seen with his head in his hands. His chief executive Omar Berrada, whom he had headhunted from City, had a blank stare on him, and so too did sporting director Jason Wilcox.

The three men decided 10 months ago that Amorim was the right man for the United manager's job, even though their then-colleague Dan Ashworth had expressed his reservations given the coach's strict adherence to the 3-4-3 formation. And right now, Ashworth looks like the smartest guy who is no longer in the room.

At this moment, the strong personal relationship Ratcliffe has with Amorim, whom he sends GIFs to and who he tolerates telling him to "f*ck off", is surely the only thing stopping him from firing the Portuguese. If he was judging Amorim on results, Ratcliffe would have ripped his contract up by now.

The INEOS chief has admitted he regrets keeping Ten Hag in charge in the summer of 2024, but keeping Amorim in the role for much longer could turn out to be an even bigger mistake.