Sven-Göran Eriksson was on top of the Barclays Premier League last night after condemning Manchester United to their worst start in 15 years. A goal from Geovanni, one of his Brazilian acquisitions, settled the derby in Manchester City’s favour, leaving Eriksson with maximum points from three games and yet to concede a goal. From the same number of matches, United have two points, their most dismal beginning since 1992-93 (although they did go on to win the league that season).

Micah Richards, the 19-year-old defender, was the undisputed man of the match and not even a suspected ligament injury to Valeri Bojinov, the striker, could dampen Eriksson’s day. His next match is away to Arsenal on Saturday.

“We won, but at times we struggled with our passing, so the good thing is I know we can get better,” Eriksson said. “What I notice is that the feeling in the dressing-room is getting stronger and stronger. We are learning to fight and our players are still getting used to the Premier League. Sometimes the speed of the game catches them out, but that will improve, too.

“I am not going to readjust our targets yet — we will know about where we are after we play away at Arsenal.”

Richards was magnificent at the heart of the City defence and will play at right back for Steve McClaren’s patched-up England team against Germany on Wednesday.

Eriksson said: “To have a young man, at 19, to be so strong and yet so quick is a very unique package — I am not sure I have come across it in my career. He is so powerful in the air, but if he makes a mistake, he can recover. At his age, when sometimes there is a lack of experience, that is very useful.”

Richards said: “We’re just delighted. It was a great team performance.

We’ve come out and shown the fans that we can do it. We can beat anyone. We’ve got the players to do it, so why not?”

Sir Alex Ferguson, meanwhile, accepts that his side must start winning — fast. “We have given ourselves an uphill fight; there is no doubt about that,” the United manager said. “We have to get a win under our belts. We have Tottenham on Sunday. That has become a very important game for us. We have to rely on our experience and make sure we do not get carried away with a knee-jerk reaction.

“We had enough chances and played fantastic football at times. We were just wasteful. We had so many opportunities to win it ourselves. I can’t fault the performance — we completely dominated. But we should have sewn the game up.”