When the dust has settled on this neighbourly spat the Manchester rivals will feel that for now and the foreseeable future the only thing they have in common is the letter M in their postcodes.
It may have been one of the most important dates in City's calendar for the best part of five years, but United will consider that, with Panathinaikos on the Champions League agenda at Old Trafford tomorrow, it was probably not even the biggest game of the week. However unpalatable that may be for Manchester's blue contingent, that is just the way it is. Their time may come, but at the moment it must feel like light years away.
Instead, United's advanced artillery has taken them five points clear at the Premiership's summit, while City must make do with their sling and stones, now hovering perilously above the relegation zone.
City's fans will continue to loathe United's with a passion, while those from Old Trafford will continue to treat those from Maine Road with the sort of condescending tone usually reserved for a well-meaning but simple cousin. In United's fanzines "city" no longer even merits a capital C.
From the moment they emerged to Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, City's intentions carried no element of surprise, but apart a few spiky moments when Alfie Haaland and Danny Tiatto seemed to be playing an adaptation of Brag with anyone in a red shirt - "I'll match your studs and raise you another two inches." - the tribal warfare amounted to nothing more than minor skirmishing.
United looked like they could step up one, two, even three gears but, somewhat paradoxically, their profligacy could have led to self-inflicted wounds had City not been quite so stagnant in attack. Chances came and went and in the end Joe Royle might reflect that the fan who hit David Beckham with a pound coin had a better aim than any of his front players.
By then, however, the damage had been done with a Beckham free-kick special that Royle clearly felt his goalkeeper, Nicky Weaver, should have saved. "I would beg to differ," protested Weaver, but his instinctive step to his left, just as the ball was struck, had proved fatal.
Beckham's kick went the other way and, after waiting patiently since April 1996 to renew hostilities with the enemy it had taken only 95 seconds for City's supporters to be blanketed by a familiar feeling of nausea.
Four successive defeats have left City treading water, but they have acclimatised to the Premiership as well as they would have dared to anticipate, and if their defence and attack clicks together, rather than one or the other going Awol, they should survive with a bit to spare.
The problem is that sometimes too much can be expected too soon. Losing 1-0 to England's premier team shows that City are still making a heck of a progress, even if United are disappearing into the distance.
MANCHESTER CITY: Weaver, Haarland, Howey, Prioe, Wiekens (Bishop 45), Tiattop, Charvet, Whitely, Wright-Phillips, Dickov, Kennedy (Goater 45). Subs not used: Wanchope, Dunne Wright. Booked: Dickov, Prior, Tiatto.
MANCHESTER UNITED: Barthez, G Nevville, Irwin, P Neville, Beckham, Butt, Keane, Scholes, Brown, Sheringham (Giggs 76), Yorke. Subs not used: Rachubka, Wallwork, Chadwick, Silestre. Booked: Butt.
Referee: S Dunn
