Manchester United registered their first victory over city rivals Manchester City three league matches with a 1-0 win on Sunday.

Having completed the double over their much illustrious opponents last season, City were confident of coming away with at least a point from the game following great performances over Arsenal and Schalke in their last two games.

However it was United who dominated the proceedings in the first half with Cristiano Ronaldo,Dimitar Berbatov and Patrice Evra going close.

City's first real chance came on the half hour mark when Stephen Ireland's shot took a deflection off the United defense and bounced straight to Micah Richards at the far post but the defender failed to react in time and prod the ball into an empty net with Edwin Van der Sar hopelessly out of position.

The visitors finally took a deserved lead in the 42nd minute when Michael Carrick latched on to a poor clearance by the City defense and though his shot was saved by Hart, the ball fell to Wayne Rooney who was left with a simple tap in.

Manager Mark Hughes changed his formation in the second half and it seemed to have worked for the hosts as City stepped up the pressure in search of an equalizer. They were given a boost in the 68th minute when Ronaldo, who had been already booked, was shown his second yellow card for handling the ball inside the area and was sent off.

However in spite of their numerical superiority, the visitors failed to make their dominance in possession pay as United played out for the final whistle to collect all three points from the game.