It may been on the cards for a number of weeks, but confirmation of Manchester City's status as Premier League champions will still be a bitter pill to swallow for the red half of the city.
United's defeat at Old Trafford, their fifth loss at home this season - confirmed Pep Guardiola's side can celebrate a third Premier League title in four seasons, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men ten points behind with just three games left to play.
Part of Manchester City's success this season has undoubtedly been their ability to call on a quality of squad depth other Premier League outfits simply don't have, something that Solskjaer eluded to in his post-match comments.
The Norwegian boss said: "You know, if you want to take up the challenge with them, of course we have to strengthen our squad.
"Congratulations to them, they’ve had a fantastic season.
"Very pleased with my boys because they’ve made it into the last 10 days of the season with a Man City team ahead of us that are lauded as the best in Europe.
“We’ve done well, but we want to take the next step and it might be that we need a couple more to have a strong squad.”
United will have hopes of putting up more of a fight against their 'noisy neighbours' next season, but that may require expensive new additions to the squad.
Speaking after the game, Red Devils icon Rio Ferdinand confirmed he agreed with his former teammate and current United boss Solksjaer.
Ferdinand explained: "I think it’s evident, you see the team, if you change the squad. Man City can do this. They’d come here today and be comfortable, wouldn’t look like a team out of sorts, being thrown together.
"Man United today had young kids playing, the two wide boys, very inexperienced. Man City change their team like this and they just look like the first XI."
Ferdinand continued, bemoaning the contrast in impact of when either Manchester outfit tries to rotate, claiming: "You don’t see a change because of the quality, the depth in their squad.
"Man United, to get to that level, I think Ole is perfectly right, they have to invest in the transfer market and I imagine they will."
