Ever since the Premier League reverted to three substitutes from the pandemic allowance of five, Pep Guardiola has had a bee in his bonnet.
The Manchester City manager thinks it is a counter-productive measure that robs him and all managers of the capability to protect their overworked players from injury.
During City’s 2-0 win over Manchester United on Saturday, Guardiola failed to make a single substitution.
"I'm so sorry," he told Sky Sports. "I don't like to not use them. The game was 2-0, everything was comfortable, I felt to not change anything today."
It was a damning assessment of United’s meek resistance as City chalked up their eighth Premier League win at Old Trafford - the most of any visitors in the history of the competition.
Some of those victories were proper blood-and-guts derby affairs, one was famously an absolute thrashing, but was the weekend win the easiest of the lot?
Well, why not join us in a look back at City’s Premier League triumphs at Old Trafford, ranked from the most to the least difficult.
8. Blundering Bravo
Guardiola’s first derby at the helm and the renewal of his hostilities with Jose Mourinho would have ranked much higher up this list but for the contribution of his most controversial signing.
Claudio Bravo’s arrival hastened club great Joe Hart out of the door and his debut at Old Trafford was one to forget.
City were cruising thanks to first-half goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Kelechi Iheanacho before Bravo dropped a routine take and allowed Zlatan Ibrahimovic to reduce the arrears. The Chile goalkeeper then engineered a 50-50 on Wayne Rooney that could have resulted in a penalty and a red card but brought neither.
The visitors ended the stronger, with De Bruyne hitting the post as he looked to make a 2-1 win more authoritative, but the nightmare debut from which Bravo’s City career never recovered meant they could never relax.
7. You signed Phil Jones, we signed Kun Aguero
City had all but surrendered the Premier League title by the time the away derby of the 2012/13 campaign rolled around.
A deflected James Milner strike gave the Blues a second-half lead before the champions-elect hit back through a Vincent Kompany own goal.
United then had to absorb a brutal reminder of why the title had been ripped away from them in the first place, as Sergio Aguero set off on a diagonal run away from goal and a clutch of United defenders to spear a shot into the roof of David de Gea’s net. Phil Jones slid in, pulled a very funny face and City won 2-1.
6. Steady Edi
The Guardiola-Mourinho rivalry again threatened to ramp up in the 2017/18 season as City and United pulled clear of the rest in the Premier League.
The only catch was unbeaten City having an eight-point lead heading into the December derby and goals smuggled from set-pieces in either half by David Silva and Nicolas Otamendi secured a deserved 2-1 triumph.
Mourinho conceded United’s title aspirations were “probably” over, although Marcus Rashford’s goal against the run of play in first-half stoppage time gave the Reds hope. Despite their overall dominance, City needed an outstanding double save by Ederson from Romelu Lukaku and Juan Mata to seal the points.
5. Bernardo Silva loves derby day pt I
The tension and difficulty associated with this win came largely from external factors. City and Liverpool were locked in a titanic battle for the 2018/19 Premier League.
Guardiola’s side simply could not afford to slip up and a cagey affair remained goalless at half-time.
Bernardo Silva found the crucial breakthrough and Leroy Sane came off the bench to double the advantage. In the end, it felt routine, but Guardiola’s initial 2-0 win over Solskjaer at Old Trafford came with much more jeopardy.
4. He comes from Zimbabwe, to score on derby day
City arrived at Old Trafford in February 2008 without a derby win away from home since 1974. After the solemn pre-match tributes to mark the 50th anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster, Sven-Goran Eriksson’s underdogs were simply magnificent.
Darius Vassell opened the scoring, beating Edwin van der Sar at the second attempt before debutant Benjani glanced in Martin Petrov’s right-wing delivery to put the travelling supporters in dreamland.
In truth, United were weirdly flat throughout and offered little until Michael Carrick scored in the closing minutes. A transitional and mid-table City saw off a United team bound for Premier League and Champions League glory and, amazingly, it wasn’t particularly difficult.
3. Why Always Me?
Surely this should be number one? Well, actually, Mario Balotelli’s iconic opening goal came against the run of play and, even though United were down to 10 men, Darren Fletcher’s fine finish in the 81st minute left many a wearied City fan fearing the worst.
Then, of course, all hell broke loose and Edin Dzeko and David Silva turned an impressive win into a seismic, historic moment, but City have since had easier afternoons behind enemy lines.
2. We’re all signing Edin Dzeko
This is the derby most reminiscent of what unfolded at the weekend and David Moyes found himself out of a job the following month. Not ideal, really, Ole.
Dzeko opened the scoring inside the first minute, by which point Manuel Pellegrini’s title-bound City had already hit the post and it was a story of total control from that point on.
A second-half volley saw Dzeko double his tally and Yaya Toure completed an authoritative showing. There were times when this did at least, fleetingly, look like a derby, though - such as when Danny Welbeck was lucky to be only booked for an awful tackle on Pablo Zabaleta.
1. Putting the ball in the fridge
No, it has never, ever been quite as easy as that. Without some fine De Gea saves and some poor City finishing, we’d have been in 6-1 territory on Saturday. Albeit without any threat of the “1” component to the scoreline.
United had more shots on their own goal than City’s with De Gea sparing Victor Lindelof from joining Eric Bailly in the own goals column.
City were dazzling but United were abject to the point this looked more like a training game long before Bernardo doubled the lead on the stroke of half-time.
No visiting team has completed more than City’s 753 passes in a single Premier League game at Old Trafford, centre-back Ruben Dias’ 12 passes in the final third were more than United managed collectively near the goal the Portugal international was defending, Kevin De Bruyne created more chances than the entire home team by himself. Pick any statistic you like, they’re all ridiculous.
There will probably never be another more one-sided Manchester derby unless United’s loyalty to Solskjaer reaches improbable new levels.
Do you think Saturday's victory was City's easiest at Old Trafford? Follow City Is Ours editor Dom Farrell on Twitter to join in the conversation and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
