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Manchester United have a mountain to climb in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final after a 3-1 defeat to rivals City at Old Trafford.

It was United’s visitors who caught the eye first in the Manchester derby before a ball had even been kicked, with Pep Guardiola opting to rest both Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Agüero – instead starting Bernardo Silva out of position.

​​When the match finally got underway, it was Manchester United who opened up the first real chance of the game through Marcus Rashford, but the England international’s low cross was cleared by Fernandinho.

When City finally ventured forward after a quarter of an hour, Bernardo Silva produced a moment of magic that opened the scoring in the cup semi-final.

The Portugal international was invited to shoot after being given time and space on his stronger left foot from the edge of the area, and Silva picked out the top corner of David de Gea’s net with a stunning strike that went in off the underside of the bar.

City took control of the match after Silva’s opener and they doubled their lead soon after Riyad Mahrez broke away on the counter-attack.

The Algerian waltzed past David de Gea and tapped the ball into the back of an empty net from inside the penalty area, putting the visitors firmly in control as they looked to get the two-legged tie wrapped up at Old Trafford.

City’s two-goal lead quickly became three after a moment of magic from De Bruyne on the edge of the area to open up space in behind United’s defence.

The Belgium international’s initial shot was saved by de Gea, but the loose ball rebounded off a helpless Andreas Pereira and into the back of the net – rounding off an awful first-half for the hosts.

The game was only going in one direction.

But United showed they still had some life left in them when Marcus Rashford raced onto the end of a through ball from Mason Greenwood.

The England international’s touch took him away from Nicolás Otamendi and Rashford picked out the bottom corner of Claudio Bravo’s net – offering some hope that United would at least avoid total humiliation in the Manchester derby.

It was a goal that offered a small glimmer of hope for Manchester United, but City held on for the win to put one foot in the Carabao Cup final already.

Both sides will meet again at Etihad Stadium on January 29, but Solskjaer’s side will desperately need to improve if they want to stand any chance of overturning their two-goal deficit and a shot at winning some silverware this season.

But before the second leg, here’s what the reaction to the game at Old Trafford was like on social media.

The watching world were treated to two Arsenal performances for the price of one on Monday evening. A terrible first half saw them overrun by Leeds, before Reiss Nelson’s goal capped a 1-0 victory, better second 45 minutes and progression to the FA Cup fourth round. ​

For those who haven’t watched Leeds or any previous Bielsa teams in action, the opening half was a crash course in why he is so widely revered. They played without fear, were dominant in possession and created chances – the best of which came courtesy of Patrick Bamford and Ezgjan Alioski.

​​​​From an ​Arsenal perspective, fans on Twitter were right to question Mikel Arteta’s formation and the personnel playing within it. A back four with Sokratis and Sead Kolasinac as full-backs enabled Leeds’ wingers to run them ragged, cutting inside and running in behind to great effect.

At the heart of the team, two pairs seemed uncomfortable and overrun by their opponent’s energy. David Luiz and Rob Holding were sloppy when playing out from the back, while Granit Xhaka and Matteo Guendouzi lost track of their runners, occupied the same space and generally seemed a yard behind the visitors.

Put the four players together and Leeds had a field day between the lines and behind the defence.

​​Surely Arsenal couldn’t be as bad as they were in the opening 45? Thankfully not! Whatever home truths Arteta had to say at half time, it resulted in the Gunners playing with higher intensity and much further up the pitch.

They began to win the midfield battle and got their attacking players into the game, which sparked two questions on Twitter: where was this Arsenal in the first half? What happened to the Leeds of that first 45?

The new and improved Arsenal made their dominance count just ten minutes into the second half, as Reiss Nelson converted a ball that took more than one deflection between ​Alexandre Lacazette‘s cross and hitting the back of the net. It took the sting out of a Leeds side who had been made to rue their first half wastefulness.

The performance might have been better, but there was still time for some Arsenal petulance and they were arguably lucky to have a full compliment of 11 players on the pitch.

Xhaka had been on a one-man mission to rack up the same cynical foul as many times as possible, which went unpunished time and again – surely there were at least two yellows in his cumulative fouls?

Lacazette, meanwhile, was lucky to escape punishment via a VAR review as he kicked out at a ​Leeds player – it threw up more questions about the process and Twitter was divided.