The big question was how Jose Mourinho would approach Sunday's match. Truth be told, with his best defender (Eric Bailly) and best player (Paul Pogba) unavailable, it wasn't that big a mystery: United would sit and absorb pressure. The only real question was whether to counterattack quickly with long balls to Romelu Lukaku or try to play out from the back. They opted for the former, and, again, it was logical. You're not going to thread the needle and play out against Manchester City's press with the personnel available to Mourinho. Besides: a front man like Lukaku with two pacy guys like Antony Martial and Marcus Rashford on either side of him could, in theory, hurt you on the counter.

It didn't work out that way. Lukaku had a poor game, and in any case, he was too isolated. City were dominant and even though they didn't turn that possession into the volume of chances we'd become accustomed to in previous games, they easily created more. The fact that both their goals came from set pieces -- with a little help from defensive mishaps -- doesn't change the fact they had the upper hand.

Indeed, other than Ederson's double save from Romelu Lukaku and Juan Mata late on, United created very little. Sure: had Lukaku kicked the ball somewhere other than Ederson's face, United might have had a point, but it would still be an eight-point gap.

What was needed here was a statement from United. What we got was confirmation that right now there's simply a gulf between these two sides.

As he often does, Mourinho laid out an alternate narrative after the match. It was one where Ander Herrera should have had a penalty for the incident with Nicolas Otamendi and where City are "lucky" to be "protected" by the "football gods." Whatever. City may have been fortunate in some respects, but that doesn't mean they were undeserving. And the Herrera incident looked to most as if it was the Spain midfielder diving forward expecting to find Otamendi's leg, and little more.

Sometimes you just have to accept that your rival is on another plane this season, whether it's the "football gods," or, more simply, hard work, better signings and a lack of major injuries. The fact is United are on pace to finish with 83 points this season, which is 29 more than last year and a whopping 34 more than the second Louis Van Gaal campaign. It's also just three fewer than Sir Alex Ferguson's 2012-13 side, the last United side to win the title.

There is evident progress here, despite Lukaku's inconsistency, Pogba's injury, Henrikh Mkhitaryan being completely lost and the fact that most of their Premier League rivals have stepped it up a notch.

As for Manchester City, we were at "peak Pep" when, with the score tied 1-1, he removed a central defender (Vincent Kompany) for a midfielder (Ilkay Gundogan). They may have slowed down over the past few weeks, but they are still cruising along quicker than everybody else.