Where are they now? The Manchester City side that demolished United 6-1

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Planet Football
12th December 2020

Manchester City‘s 6-1 victory over Manchester United in October 2011 was truly iconic for the club.

Mario Balotelli opened the scoring before revealing an undershirt that read “Why always me?” before Jonny Evans was sent off for fouling the Italian who then went and got the second goal of the game.

Sergio Aguero’s finish was then followed up by Darren Fletcher’s strike from outside the box, but the Scotsman’s impressive effort turned out to be a mere consolation as City ran rampant in the closing stages.

Edin Dzeko scored either side of David Silva slotting the ball between David de Gea’s legs, completing what was a humiliation of the Red Devils.

This was a statement performance from the men representing the blue side of Manchester, so we looked to see where they are now.

Joe Hart

At the time, Hart was considered as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League, but it’s safe to say it’s been a turbulent time since the former England international was discarded by Pep Guardiola.

After two loan spells, he went off to Burnley but failed to become first-choice. The 33-year-old is now back-up for Hugo Lloris at Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham.

Micah Richards

Richards may have burst onto the scene, but he wasn’t able to maintain the level of performance needed to keep him at the top.

The defender was loaned out to Fiorentina in 2015 and went to Aston Villa for free once that spell came to an end – but spent most of his time at Villa Park sidelined and eventually called time on his career at 31 in 2019. He’s now a pundit, featuring prominently on Sky Sports and BBC.

Vincent Kompany

One of City’s most loved players in recent years eventually left in 2019 to become player-coach of Anderlecht.

He didn’t stay in that role long, lasting just five games before focusing solely on playing for the rest of the campaign, before taking up management full-time this term.

Joleon Lescott

Lescott went to West Bromwich Albion, then had a spell at Aston Villa that was best remembered for the defender “accidentally” posting a picture of his car shortly after a loss.

Spells at AEK Athens and Sunderland followed before what we thought was his retirement. At 38 years old there is still life in the legs, with Lescott returning to play for Racing Murcia in the fourth tier of Spanish football in 2020.

📷 'There was a player that asked for my advice on a new car…'

Speaking on #TheDebate, Joleon Lescott admitted his tweet about an expensive car after Aston Villa were thrashed 6-0 by Liverpool ruined his relationship with the club and its fans. 💔 pic.twitter.com/DZJrG6XXZh

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 18, 2020

Gael Clichy

Clichy went to Istanbul Basaksehir in 2017, alongside fellow former Premier League men Gokhan Inler, Manuel da Costa and Kerim Frei.

The likes of Demba Ba and Martin Skrtel subsequently arrived to join him and he played a key role in the club’s first Super Lig title in 2019-20 before being released. He’s now playing for Servette in Switzerland.

Yaya Toure

Toure’s last competitive appearances came for Quingdao Huanghai in the Chinese Super League, but we loved seeing that the Ivory Coast icon was training with Leyton Orient.

He’s done some punditry and ambassadorial work since then.

👀 Who have we got here then?

It's only three-time Premier League, Champions League, La Liga and African Cup of Nations winner Yaya Touré.

There he is look, in his Leyton Orient top at training this morning.#LOFC #OnlyOneOrient pic.twitter.com/nvX99rro4Y

— Leyton Orient (@leytonorientfc) July 24, 2020

Gareth Barry

The Premier League’s record appearance-maker retired in August of 2020, having made six appearances in 2019-20 to help West Brom get back into the top tier.

Like many of his old England team-mates, the 39-year-old has already done some punditry since hanging up his boots.

READ: A tribute to Gareth Barry, one of the PL’s most underrated players

James Milner

Milner may be 34 years old, but the versatile midfielder is still going as strong as ever, being an important part of the Liverpool squad that has won four trophies since the start of 2019.

He’s injured at the moment, but we fully expect the absolute machine to continue playing for years to come.

Sergio Aguero

The Argentine was a hero back then and he’s a hero now. The striker is the only player who started that game who is still at the Etihad, and he’s since gone on to become the club’s all-time top scorer.

Aguero’s season has been disrupted by injury, but he’s still as lethal as ever, having scored two Champions League goals in 103 minutes across three games so far in 2020-21.

READ: Iconic debuts: Sergio Agüero’s blistering introduction to Man City

David Silva

The magician left City in the summer of 2020, moving back to Spain to play for Real Sociedad. If you thought that was a sign of his career winding down then think again.

At the time of writing, the 34-year-old has played 13 games to help La Real get out of their Europa League group while they currently sit second in La Liga.

Mario Balotelli

After leaving City in 2013, Balotelli has spent time with AC Milan, Liverpool, Nice, Marseille and Brescia.

The Italian recently joined Serie B outfit AC Monza to help their push to make the top tier. The club is owned by Silvio Berlusconi and Balotelli is now teaming up with Kevin-Prince Boateng. This should definitely be interesting.