A ferocious derby between Manchester City and Manchester United saw the Red Devils emerge 3-2 winners, but the match was marred when Rio Ferdinand was injured by a coin thrown from the crowd.

Two goals on the counter from Wayne Rooney saw United lead 2-0 at half time. But City railed back with strikes from Yaya Toure and Pablo Zabaleta and looked set to continue their unbeaten home run that stretched back to a 2-1 defeat by Everton in December 2010.

But at the death a free kick by Robin Van Persie, the striker United beat City to signing this summer, was deflected by Sami Nasri into the net to round off a victory that see United move six points clear at the top of the table.

Whilst Van Persie and Rooney dazzled for United, City's striker Mario Balotelli was largely ineffective. Roberto Mancini has been criticised for his decision to start the Italian in the match, with the manager saying he is stunned by the player's drop in form.

"When you have a player with the quality that Mario (Balotelli) has, you can't understand that (why) he continues to throw out of the window the quality that he has, this is incredible. I saw a player in my life with fantastic quality and in the end they did nothing. I don't want Mario to finish like this player because it would not be good for him."

City have condemned the fan who threw a coin at Rio Ferdinand in the dying minutes of the game and have said that CCTV footage of the incident at the Etihad Stadium was being reviewed. Despite suffering a head wound, Ferdinand joked about the incident of Twitter afterwards saying, " Whoever threw that coin,what a shot! Can't believe it was a copper 2p....could have at least been a £1 coin!"

Written and presented by Alfred Joyner