The victory means that wins over Newcastle and Queens Park Rangers in their remaining games will almost certainly see City claim their first league crown in 44 years while United would finish the season without a trophy.
Kompany's winner settled an at times ill-tempered duel which was beamed to a worldwide audience estimated in the hundreds of millions but mostly failed to live up to its pre-match hype.
The pressure-cooker nature of the occasion was reflected by an ugly touchline bust-up involving United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and his City counterpart Roberto Mancini on 76 minutes.
A visibly enraged Ferguson had to be restrained from confronting Mancini after the Italian had marched into the technical area to complain after Nigel De Jong was booked for a cynical challenge on Danny Welbeck.
Mancini later brushed off the spat and insisted United remained in pole position because of their "easy" remaining games against Swansea and Sunderland.
"United have easy games, they play against Swansea and Sunderland," Mancini said. "We have Newcastle and QPR -- one plays for Champions League, one plays for relegation. For United it will be easy but we have two strong teams."
"It's far from over and we know that, but to give our fans two wins over United this season... we have to finish it off and we have to do it over the next two games," City captain Kompany said.
| POS | LP | CLUB | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
(2) | Manchester City | 36 | 26 | 5 | 5 | 88 | 27 | 61 | 83 |
| 2 | |
(1) | Manchester United | 36 | 26 | 5 | 5 | 86 | 33 | 53 | 83 |
| 3 | |
(3) | Arsenal | 36 | 20 | 6 | 10 | 68 | 44 | 24 | 66 |
| 4 | |
(4) | Tottenham Hotspur | 35 | 18 | 8 | 9 | 59 | 39 | 20 | 62 |
| 5 | |
(5) | Newcastle United | 35 | 18 | 8 | 9 | 53 | 46 | 7 | 62 |
| 6 | |
(6) | Chelsea | 35 | 17 | 10 | 8 | 62 | 39 | 23 | 61 |
| 7 | |
(7) | Everton | 35 | 14 | 9 | 12 | 46 | 38 | 8 | 51 |
| 8 | |
(8) | Liverpool | 35 | 13 | 10 | 12 | 43 | 37 | 6 | 49 |
| 9 | |
(9) | Fulham | 35 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 45 | 48 | -3 | 46 |
| 10 | |
(10) | West Bromwich Albion | 36 | 13 | 7 | 16 | 41 | 47 | -6 | 46 |
| 11 | |
(11) | Sunderland | 36 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 44 | 43 | 1 | 45 |
| 12 | |
(12) | Swansea City | 36 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 43 | 49 | -6 | 44 |
| 13 | |
(13) | Norwich City | 36 | 11 | 10 | 15 | 47 | 63 | -16 | 43 |
| 14 | |
(14) | Stoke City | 35 | 11 | 10 | 14 | 33 | 49 | -16 | 43 |
| 15 | |
(15) | Aston Villa | 36 | 7 | 16 | 13 | 36 | 50 | -14 | 37 |
| 16 | |
(16) | Wigan Athletic | 36 | 9 | 10 | 17 | 38 | 60 | -22 | 37 |
| 17 | |
(17) | Queens Park Rangers | 36 | 9 | 7 | 20 | 40 | 63 | -23 | 34 |
| 18 | |
(18) | Bolton | 35 | 10 | 4 | 21 | 41 | 69 | -28 | 34 |
| 19 | |
(19) | Blackburn | 36 | 8 | 7 | 21 | 47 | 75 | -28 | 31 |
| 20 | |
(20) | Wolves | 36 | 5 | 9 | 22 | 38 | 79 | -41 | 24 |
ORIGINAL SOURCE
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