Let’s be real here, back in 2015/16 a combined XI of City and United would have looked something like this:
Martial - Aguero - De Bruyne
Silva - Fernandinho - Herrera
Shaw - Smalling - Kompany - Valencia
De Gea
That’s 6 United players and 5 City players. Shaw was the only debatable pick since he had just came off a leg injury, but City were so poor in the fullback areas so he still gets picked. I would even have Darmian over Kolarov and Clichy. Players like Sterling, Otamendi, Delph and even Fernandinho were not considered anywhere near as good as they are now. Martial was considered a future Ballon D’Or winner and rated much higher than Sterling.
City and United finished level on 66 points that season, with City ahead only on goal difference.
People can revise history as much as they want, talk about how much harder Mourinho’s job has been and how great City’s team was in 2015/16, but that just isn’t true.