Welcoming Carlos Tevez, matching their trophy treble & the 12 moments that turned Manchester from red to blue as City continue to dominate United

The year 2008 was looking like a miserable one for City fans. While United won the Premier League title on the last day of the season, City lost 8-1 at Middlesbrough. Weeks later, United won the Champions League final in Moscow while City's very future was in doubt after chairman Thaksin Shinawatra went on trial for fraud charges in Thailand.

But Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, rode to their rescue. Mansour was plotting to buy a Premier League club and looked at three other options before landing on City, paying Shinawatra £210m for 90 percent of the club's shares. In a matter of days, City went from a laughing stock and a club on the brink of collapse to the richest club in the world.

The same day the takeover was announced, City signed Robinho from Real Madrid. The first stone in their quest for global domination had been cast.

Robinho may have been a glitzy signing and a statement of intent from the new City owners, but it was nothing like the audacious move the club pulled off in signing Carlos Tevez and rubbing their new-found wealth in the faces of Manchester United.

United had never owned Tevez, but while on a two-year loan from West Ham he had developed into one of their stars and a key player in their two Premier League wins and run to two Champions League finals. Ferguson, however, was reluctant to sign Tevez permanently due to the fact his economic rights belonged to a third party and his wage demands were colossal.

City, now backed by Sheikh Mansour and Abu Dhabi, had no such qualms, and as soon as they had signed Tevez they plastered his face over a blue billboard bearing the words 'Welcome to Manchester'.

Tevez averaged a goal every two games for City and was their top scorer for the next two seasons, firing them into the Champions League for the first time in 2011 and to the FA Cup, their first trophy in 35 years.

He embarrassed the club by refusing to warm up against Bayern Munich and disappearing to Argentina for several months to play golf, but returned just in time to help City win their first title at United's expense, too.

United had not lost a league derby for four seasons heading into their meeting with City in October 2011, and went into this match unbeaten for the season, so they were totally unprepared for what would take place in an astonishing 90 minutes at Old Trafford.

City had made a strong start to the campaign and man-of-the-moment Mario Balotelli gave them the lead, unveiling his famous 'Why Always Me?' t-shirt after scoring. The game was still under control from United's point of view until Jonny Evans was sent off early in the second half. With an extra man, City ran riot.

Balotelli doubled the lead on the hour mark and Sergio Aguero grabbed a third. Darren Fletcher scored down the other end to make it 3-1 and give United hope, but in trying to get back into the game, Ferguson's side left themselves dangerously exposed and City took full advantage, scoring three goals in the final four minutes. The 6-1 win was City's biggest over United since 1926 and the Red Devils' worst defeat of the Premier League era up to that point.

But as well as being a sign of the looming shift in power in the city, the result had huge ramifications in the title race, as City won their first Premier League title on goal difference.

It is the ultimate sliding doors moment in Premier League history. City were on the verge of throwing the title away as they trailed 10-man Queens Park Rangers 2-1 heading into stoppage-time while United secured a 1-0 win at Sunderland.

United thought they had won the title, but Edin Dzeko's header set up an enthralling end at the Etihad Stadium, and Sergio Aguero snatched victory and City's first Premier League title, spawning Martin Tyler's most memorable commentary line: "Manchester City are still alive here... Balotelli..... Agueroooo! I swear you'll never see anything like this ever again. So watch it, drink it in."

Aguero's goal was the beginning of City's era of domination, the first of seven titles in the space of 12 seasons.

When Ferguson finally called time on his storied managerial career in May 2013, United were in a fine place. They had just reclaimed the title back from City, who had finished way off the pace and endured an embarrassing FA Cup final defeat to relegated Wigan Athletic.

It was obvious that United would take some time adjusting to a post-Ferguson world, but no one could envisage how bad things would get. Since the legendary Scot retired, the Red Devils have failed to win a Premier League title or even get close.

They have missed out on Champions League qualification on four occasions and only made it to the quarter-finals of Europe's elite competition twice. And they have cycled through six managers, while City have had just two in the same period.

When Sheikh Mansour bought City, he was given concerning reports of the state of the club's training facilities by chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak. "I took a tour with Mark Hughes and I couldn't believe what I saw. It was not the minimum level of infrastructure required for a top-tier club," Al Mubarak recalled to The Guardian.

"When I returned, I immediately went to Sheikh Mansour, showed him pictures of the facility and he was very straight to say, 'this is unacceptable'. There were some quick fixes, quick wins, we could do at City, like fixing the gym, the medical facility – we had to do it quickly, because it was simply unacceptable."

The ultimate fix though was to build the shining City Football Academy across the road from the Etihad Stadium, which opened in 2014. The facility cost £200m to build, but the club have already paid it off thanks to selling some of their most promising youngsters, such as Cole Palmer and Jadon Sancho. The CFA is most famous for producing Phil Foden, while more recent graduates into the first team include Rico Lewis and Oscar Bobb.

As well as breeding top youngsters, the academy is a dream place for Guardiola and his first team to work. Quite unlike United's training ground at Carrington, which Cristiano Ronaldo complained had barely changed when he returned to the club in 2021 after leaving in 2009.

United knew first-hand how good a coach Guardiola was, as they had been torn apart by his Barcelona side in two Champions League finals. Ferguson had even gone for dinner with Guardiola in New York, but his attempt to lure him as his successor did not get very far, and he eventually chose fellow Glaswegian David Moyes to take the baton from him, with dire consequences.

City, meanwhile, began head-hunting Guardiola as far back as 2012, just months after Roberto Mancini had led them to that first title. They recruited Guardiola's former Barcelona colleagues Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano as sporting director and chief executive, respectively, and when the coach told them that he had already agreed to join Bayern Munich, they promised they would wait for him.

Ultimately, City sought to replicate the same model that Guardiola had worked with at Barcelona and it has paid off handsomely, with the club winning 15 trophies in seven years. United, meanwhile, have had a scattergun approach to manager recruitment, hiring coaches with wildly differing football philosophies.

United fans delighted in Guardiola's first ultimately disappointing season at City, chanting "your trophy days are over". But in the Catalan's second season, he put United and his old nemesis Jose Mourinho in the shade by overseeing the greatest league campaign in English football history, with City racking up a record-breaking 100 points to storm to the 2017-18 title.

City fans revelled in their team's buccaneering style of play, which contrasted with their rivals' reactive football under Mourinho, chanting "park the bus Man United" as they won the derby at Old Trafford in December to move 11 points clear at the top.

City have had many bigger wins over United than their 2-0 win at Old Trafford in November 2021, but the nature of the performance made it feel like a thrashing and demonstrated the gulf in class between the two neighbours.

Guardiola's side had 67% possession, made 832 passes to United's 400 and had 16 shots to United's five. This was slow torture and spelled the end for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, proving to be the Norwegian's last league game at Old Trafford.

United were made aware of Erling Haaland's potential long before the Norwegian turned into the deadliest striker in the world. He had worked under Solskjaer at Molde and the former United striker had informed the club about the teenage prodigy even before he became manager.

Solskjaer also tried to sign Haaland before he moved to Borussia Dortmund in January 2020. But when Haaland next came on the market in the summer of 2022, United were out of the picture and it became a straight battle between City and Real Madrid for the Norwegian's signature.

The most remarkable thing about City signing Haaland was that they still managed to make a profit from their dealings over the summer by selling Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Raheem Sterling. By contrast, United splashed £210m that same summer on the likes of Antony, Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez.

Haaland has been worth every penny of his £52m transfer fee and his considerable wages, scoring a record-breaking 51 goals in 52 games during his debut campaign as he fired City to three major trophies.

Even through every painful moment of City's rise over the last decade, United fans could at least take solace from the fact that their neighbours had still not won the Champions League and that the Red Devils were the only team to have won the treble, back in 1999.

But that finally changed last season in Istanbul when City took down Inter to win Europe's top prize after also lifting the Premier League title and FA Cup. To make matters worse, they beat United in the final of the latter at Wembley.

Now the red side of Manchester had nothing else to cling on to in arguments over who was the top side in their city.

Proof that City had not just overtaken United on the pitch came when UEFA announced the host stadiums for Euro 2028 in the UK and Ireland, and the Etihad was chosen ahead of Old Trafford.

Old Trafford had hosted the second-most games at Euro 96 and the opening match of the Women's European Championship in 2022, but its standing has slowly diminished due to a lack of investment and an infamous leaky roof.

United and new investor Sir Jim Ratcliffe are now working on plans to improve their stadium, either by building a new one or renovating Old Trafford, but City have already approved an expansion of their ground which will lift its capacity to 62,000 by 2026. Yet another sign of the shift in power in Manchester.