United shine in Manchester derby, Fabregas wins it for Chelsea

Sergio Aguero's early opener was cancelled out by Ashley Young's close-range effort and United went in ahead at half-time after Marouane Fellaini's powerful header.

Juan Mata added a third after the restart and Chris Smalling also found the net before Aguero pulled one back at the death to make it 4-2.

Van Gaal said before the match that he and his players had been "dreaming'' of beating their arch rivals for the first time since December 2012.

But this was a victory and performance that was surely beyond the United manager's wildest expectations.

Once United had levelled the scores, they out-performed the Barclays Premier League champions in every department.

Mata rattled City with his creativity and vision, Michael Carrick ensured the hosts played at a high tempo at the base of midfield and Ander Herrera had possibly his best game in United red.

But the best players on a pitch full of mega stars were Young and Fellaini. Van Gaal played down his role in United's revival before kick-off, but the Dutchman deserves huge credit for the way he has turned these misfits into two of the most deadly players in the top flight on current form.

Pablo Zabaleta, one of the league's most experienced and consistent performers, could not handle Young's pace all afternoon and Fellaini just bullied every player he saw in blue.

The result means United remain third in the table, four points ahead of City. The Red Devils are just one point behind Arsenal and eight shy of table-toppers Chelsea.

The biggest repercussions are likely to be felt across town. City boss Manuel Pellegrini was taunted with chants of "sacked in the morning'' towards the end of the match, which brought to an end a run of four successive derby wins for the Blues.

Any hopes of retaining the title are now surely over for Pellegrini and the pressure on the Chilean is continuing to mount.

In Sunday's early kick off beween Chelsea and QPR, the game looked to be heading for a stalemate before Fabregas' 88th minute shot -- their first on target in the game -- found its way past goalkeeper Rob Green.

The win moved Jose Mourinho's men seven points clear at the top of the table and Fabregas admitted it was an important goal.

"It was vital. We know that we are playing for the most important trophy of the season," the midfielder told Sky Sports 1.

"We're there in first place and we want to continue that."

He also paid tribute to the performance of QPR, saying: "They were very difficult to play but we showed great mentality and never gave up in the difficult moments."

Blues striker Dider Drogba added: "We had belief. We always play until the end. It was a tough game but the good thing with this team is we always play to the end."

Mourinho knew the win moved his side one step closer to a fifth league title, despite them having to work hard for it.

"Our situation was very positive. One point would be one less point we need, but the reality is that three points is always three points and one less match we need to win so is a very important step in a very important match," he said.

"It was a very difficult match where the best quality was to control the game very well and stop our opponents scoring. They are a team that can score goals and have dangerous, attacking players so our best quality in the game was to keep calm and try to play against a team that was very well organised defensively and did a fantastic job.

"After that you have lots of times in the season when you win points or lose points in the end of the game, and we won two points in the last two minutes."