The German midfielder captained City to victory at Manchester United in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off, with an Eric Bailly own goal and further Bernardo Silva strike enough to earn a 2-0 win.
It means we now sit six points clear of our rivals heading into the international break, and have come out on top in nine of our last 14 visits to Old Trafford.
And Gundogan explained what earning all three points in the Derby meant to both himself and the rest of the squad.
“There is nothing [better than winning the derby] that comes into my head straight away to be honest,” he reflected.
“It is a day full of joy and happiness for us and this is something you could see in the dressing room after the game.
“We are very happy with the result and even more pleased with the performance.
“[The mood] is really good as you can imagine. The first five minutes after in the dressing room was just huge joy and happiness about a good result, but also a really good performance.”
Pep Guardiola’s men were in control throughout proceedings at Old Trafford, limiting the hosts to just one shot on target and only 32% possession across the 90 minutes.
Nonetheless, City were unable to add to our 2-0 half-time lead, but Gundogan insisted keeping a clean sheet was also a major priority.
The German also praised Pep Guardiola’s tactical nous, after the players were initially unsure of how United would approach the fixture.
He said: “It was quite difficult for us to know what to expect. In our training session (on Friday), we were not able to do much because we didn’t know if they would play a back five or a back four.
“It changed our preparation a bit for the game. We got the line-up in the dressing room and we were quite certain about how we wanted to approach the game with our build up.
“We wanted to create chances and I think in the first half we did really, really well.
“Maybe we should have scored another couple of goals, but it is what it is. We will try to work on that and improve.
“We did very well in a few actions but for us it was important, especially after losing, that we didn’t concede. It is all about the plan and sticking to it as much as possible.
“Our manager has one of the best abilities in judging the opponent, trying to know as much as possible about what to expect and what the opponent will offer us and how we respond to that.”
:
