The Easter period is a staple, constituent element of all Christian’s lives and that is probably where the religion begins and ends its relationship with football, unless: Maradona really does have the Hand of God, Lionel Messi really is the messiah and every piece of turf up and down the country really is holy. This year was no different, and hitting on par with other such footballing clichés, such as “the next goal is vital,” “what they don’t want to do now is concede” and “it was a game of two halves,” the Easter weekend really was “defining,” “pivotal” and “crucial.”

Some quickly denounced Mario Balotelli as a scapegoat this weekend and in doing so they actually commended him – what with it being the weekend in which we remember the biggest scapegoat that graced our God-given planet, Jesus. However, the Italian, as miraculous as he may be roaming into schools to arbitrate children’s squabbles and turning fireworks into house fires, wasn’t able to save his people on Sunday and instead, much like Jesus, he looks set to disappear after 40 days of making sure everyone knows he still exists. Probably in the summer transfer window and probably back to Italy. Then we’ll only hear of him in stories, probably. I say probably because Roberto Mancini has already shown his own compassionate forgivingness in allowing Carlos Tevez to return like the Prodigal Son.

So is that what the weekend taught us – that Manchester City will have to finish second without Mario? No. What the weekend taught us is probably what Manchester City have lacked to date and not what they’ll lack in the future. (Mario by the way, they’ll miss Mario. I miss him already.)

So, away from Mario Balotelli, what they really did miss this weekend – as well as their first win in three games, someone to score a goal and Yaya Toure from 17’ onwards – was the presence of someone with rooted Englishness, quintessential understanding of the English game and more than just vested, financial interest in Manchester City doing well. Contrastingly, Manchester United had “this” in abundance – more than any other team in the Premier League and only behind five teams in the rest of Europe.

“This” is the presence of club-trained players. A club-trained player is one who has spent three years between the ages of fifteen and twenty-one training at their respective club. Normally, Manchester City have Micah Richards for their basic dose of club-trained player: however, as he was missing, the only players Manchester City had that came close were Gareth Barry, Joe Hart and Joleon Lescott. Yet, these three are association club-trained players, rather than City’s own and arguably this is one category that Manchester United far excel their inter-city rivals at. This weekend, 46.67% of Manchester United’s featuring players were club-trained at Carrington.

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