Elliot Anderson wasted little time in setting the tone after completing his move to Manchester City, with a pointed remark that will not have gone unnoticed by Manchester United supporters. On his first day as a City player, he suggested he has only ever known one successful team in Manchester.<\/p>\n
The England international arrives carrying clear expectation, both because of his price and because of the discussion his decision has already generated. United had shown interest, but Anderson\u2019s preference for City, along with Forest\u2019s high demands, led the Red Devils to step away and turn instead to Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans.<\/p>\n
City, for their part, leaned into the narrative that Anderson had chosen them over their rivals. Their X account posted a playful image styled like a video-game team selection screen, with the alphabet adjusted slightly so it would work.<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Newcastle, Anderson has no previous connection to Manchester, yet he is already looking ahead to the derby with United. Speaking at his official unveiling on Thursday, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s one of the biggest derbies in the world and for as long as I\u2019ve known Manchester [soccer], City have been the Kings of Manchester,\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be a great fixture, and I can\u2019t wait to be involved in something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The broader context explains why the line landed with such force. Anderson, born in Nov. 2002, was only 10 when Sir Alex Ferguson left Manchester United in May 2013 after winning his 11th Premier League title. By then, the balance of power had already been moving firmly toward the Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n
City have won six English titles in the last decade, while United have not finished above second in that span. Across Anderson\u2019s lifetime, City have lifted the Premier League trophy eight times to United\u2019s five.<\/p>\n
Anderson will meet Manchester United in City colours for the first time on Sept. 13 at Old Trafford. Three days after he was born, City beat United 3\u20131 in the last derby at Maine Road before their move to the stadium later renamed the Etihad.<\/p>\n
That result ended a long run without victory in the fixture, and it remains a reminder that this rivalry, even during dominant eras, has rarely followed a script.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elliot Anderson\u2019s City move has already sharpened the Manchester derby and unsettled United fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1754],"class_list":["post-17969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2026-27-fixtures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}