Balotelli made the headlines for all the right reasons after scoring twice against United.

The balance of footballing power in Manchester underwent a decisive shift yesterday as Manchester City thrashed United 6-1 at Old Trafford. The defeat, United’s worst at home for 84 years, saw City take a five point lead over them at the top of the Premiership. Firework fan Mario Balotelli opened the scoring in the first half and added a second midway through the second half after United had defender Jonny Evans sent off. Sergio Aguero got City’s third before a well placed shot from Darren Fletcher gave United a glimmer of hope. The floodgates opened in the last few minutes though as Edwin Dzeko scored two in three minutes either side of a David Silva strike. Bragging rights this morning belong firmly in the sky blue side of the city.

New Zealand ended their 24 year wait for another rugby world cup victory as they beat France 9-8 at Eden Park. New Zealand join southern hemisphere rivals South Africa and Australia as the only teams to have won the trophy on two separate occasions. Many had expected New Zealand to dominate the French as they did in their earlier pool game. This was not the case, however, with Lievremont’s team offering stubborn resistance and never letting New Zealand run away with the game. Each team managed a try apiece with the result ultimately coming down to the boot of fourth choice All Black fly-half Stephen Donald, who kicked the winning points. Captain Richie McCaw had the honour of lifting the Webb Ellis trophy in front of an ecstatic home crowd.     

There was more tragedy in the world of motor sport this weekend as Italian rider Marco Simoncelli died after a crash at the Malaysian MotoGP. His death comes a week after Indy car driver Dan Wheldon was killed in another crash in Las Vegas. 24 year old Simoncelli’s bike veered across the track in the second lap of the race and he fell into the path of two oncoming riders. His helmet was dislodged in the crash with both riders hitting him. After success in both the 125cc and 250cc classes, Simoncelli moved into premier class racing for the 2010 season. He was a member of the San Carlo Gresini Honda team.  

Luke Donald ensured he would finish top of the PGA American money list after taking victory at the Disney Classic. The World Number One hit a final round of 64 to take the title by two strokes in Florida. An impressive final day display included six birdies in a row on the back nine. Donald will now aim to become the first every golfer to top the money lists on both sides of the Atlantic. The Englishman leads the European list by over £1m, but is not expected to compete in all the eight remaining events as his wife is due to give birth to their second child in the next fortnight.

In other news, Chelsea lost ground in the title race as they were beaten 1-0 by QPR and had both Jose Bosingwa and Didier Drogba dismissed. Despite leading his team to defeat in the RWC final on Sunday, France flanker Thierry Dusautoir has been named the IRB player of the year.    

And finally, many of us are of the opinion that footballers earn pretty extortionate wages for the arduous task of chasing a ball around a field for 90 minutes each week. It seems that in Belgrade they have found a means of curbing any sense of unchallenged entitlement to such wealth. Chairman Vladan Lukic recently fined nine of his first team for lack of commitment after a friendly game. Fair enough you might think; however, his team did win the game 3-1 and one of the players fined the most actually scored one of the goals. It would be interesting to see how such exacting standards would be received by some of our more pampered Premier League performers…