At this stage of the season it is never wise to set too much store by the Premier League table, but forgive Manchester City's supporters if they are unable to resist the temptation. Their team is squatting defiantly at the summit after yesterday's derby and, when there is the added joy of seeing United grubbing around for points among lesser lights, so what if the new campaign is barely one week old?
Ferguson may change his mind when he considers Kasper Schmeichel's jitters in the home goal and, again, when he analyses the decisive deflection that Geovanni's 20-yard drive took off Nemanja Vidic's instep for the game's only goal, in precisely the area of the pitch that Owen Hargreaves, making his debut, was supposed to be protecting.
United attacked with pace and purpose, they stretched their opponents, forced corner after corner, rattled the woodwork and laid siege to Schmeichel's goal. In many ways, it was the most one-sided derby here for years - a comprehensive 0-1 thrashing, if you like - but Eriksson will not mind if the victory was fortuitous.
Only the seriously deluded could believe that the damage is irreparable but this is still a deeply worrying time for Ferguson. His complaints about missed chances have been a recurring theme in their opening programme and, having spent so much money on bringing in English football's version of the galácticos, it is peculiar, to say the least, that it is such an issue.
His dismay was exacerbated because City, for the most part, were completely ineffectual when going forward while Schmeichel was, at best, vulnerable and, at worst, a danger to his own team. The young Dane may have a famous surname but he was frequently stranded in his six-yard area, particularly when dealing with Ryan Giggs's corners. His promotion from fourth to first choice has clearly come too soon.
How did he get away with it? Largely because United were missing Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer through injury and Carlos Tevez was too eager to impress, snatching at two very presentable chances. Patrice Evra and the otherwise impressive Nani missed even easier opportunities but it is difficult to begrudge City. What they lacked in quality, Eriksson's side made up for in endeavour, from Dietmar Hamann and Michael Johnson in midfield to Richard Dunne and Micah Richards in defence.
Richards, in particular, produced a colossal performance, making at least half a dozen telling interceptions or saving tackles, and he surely deserves a starting place in England's friendly against Germany on Wednesday.
While one team from Manchester can boast an immaculate record of achievement, the other is still looking for its first victory of the season, with only one goal in three games and still to face a side with realistic aspirations of finishing in the top six. Eriksson is enjoying his honeymoon period, but who could have foreseen it would coincide with United enduring their worst start to a season for 15 years?
The Torygraph
A light blue towel was thrown through the air at Eastlands yesterday, not an unfamiliar sight in the Manchester Derby, but this was different. Unbelievably so. This towel was stained with the blood and sweat wiped from the split brow of Richard Dunne, City's colossus of a captain who embodied his team's magnificent refusal to yield any points or bragging rights to their vaunted neighbours.
For all the talk of Eriksson's foreign trolley-dash, some of City's most significant performers have been home-grown defenders like Dunne and Richards, and midfielders like Michael Johnson, who worked tirelessly combating the fires lit by Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick.
It was Johnson who launched City on the way to their surprise first-half goal, feeding Elano, who released Geovanni to score. The lead secured, Dunne and Richards fought like tigers to defend the points. City being unable to change their DNA, the home supporters' nerves were inevitably shredded by the end, as the team clung on, pushed to the very limit by Scholes, Carlos Tevez and company. At the final whistle, the roar of relief and joy was almost visceral in its emotion.
Eriksson smiled, shook hands with Sir Alex Ferguson, and then departed to the dressing-room. As City's players arrived back-stage, the adrenalin of victory pumping through their veins, the cheers of the fans ringing in their ears, they were greeted with a simple request. "I like to win,'' Eriksson told them, "but try to do it a bit more calmly!''
Outside, United's fans were retreating home from a self-proclaimed "Prawn-Free Zone", shocked by events here, and elsewhere, in this strange season. Three games, two points adds up to United's worst start in 15 years. Ferguson, who said the champion's face an "uphill battle" in the league, will reflect that football does not come much more fickle than yesterday's fare, with the champions having most of the possession, but none of the points.
The Times
Resistance, it would seem, is futile. Sven-Göran Eriksson's mission to prove his worth to the nation is beginning to resemble an unstoppable force of nature. A snowball rolling from the top of the mountain a week ago at Upton Park, by the time his team left the field here, having defeated their most bitter adversaries, the momentum was that of an avalanche.
Ultimately, while a draw might have been a fairer result, few would begrudge City this momentous victory. They had the four best players on the field - Micah Richards, Richard Dunne, Michael Johnson and Dietmar Hamann in that order, but in some cases separated by decimal fractions, rather than whole points - and a work ethic that will make them surprisingly hard to beat.
Any suspicion that Eriksson's reliance on foreign imports would make City a soft touch can now be dispelled. Valeri Bojinov retired from the game after seven minutes, but with what was believed to be a ligament injury not an outbreak of faint-heartedness, while contrary to Sir Alex Ferguson's predictions it was Manchester United, not City, that played it hard early on, their prime targets, Elano and Geovanni, riding the storm and some shuddering lively tackles.
Eriksson has been around long enough to know that days like this do not come around often, however. For all their doggedness and a fantastically tight quartet in central defence and defensive midfield, were football matches won with anything bar goals, this would have been City's first defeat of the season. United had the lion's share of possession and chances. Had Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney or Louis Saha been fit or available the outcome could have been very different.
Ferguson employed the 4-3-3 system, but without a pure goalscorer among his forward trio. Ryan Giggs and Nani are glorified midfield players, while Carlos Tévez operated with a foil at West Ham United; a player that lacked his class, usually, but with enough nuisance value to create the space in which he flourished. This missing link showed.
His were the most glaring errors. A corner from Giggs, missed by everybody - most notably Kasper Schmeichel, the City goalkeeper - which startled him at the far post with the goal unguarded, and a nice move on the hour which he started with a pass to Paul Scholes and finished after receiving a cross from Giggs, steering his touch just wide. In the first half, put through by Giggs and Michael Carrick, he was chased down and thwarted by Richards. He will not come across a defender with his recovery pace every week, but even so this was not Tévez carrying on where he left off last season. Nobody would be suing over his involvement on this form.
Elano played a short ball to Geovanni - a simple lay-off, nothing special - and his fellow Brazilian advanced several steps through a surprisingly empty midfield with Nemanja Vidic, the United central defender, reluctant to close him down. By the time the penny dropped, it was too late, Geovanni hit a swerver from 20 yards, Vidic half-flinched, the ball clipped his calf and moved farther out of the reach of Edwin Van Der Sar.
The goalkeeper did not have a save to make for the rest of the game. It must have been a very frustrating afternoon: dull, which goalkeepers like, yet fruitless, which drives them nuts.