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Old 28-04-2017, 09:45 AM   #30
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Default Re: [EPL] Manchester City 0-0 Manchester United

Manchester derby was a sideshow instead of the Premier League's main title bout despite the late fireworks

* Thursday's Manchester derby ended as a goalless draw at the Etihad Stadium
* Marouane Fellaini was sent off for a headbutt on Sergio Aguero
* Both sides are locked in a battle to finish in the top four this season


At the end, after a final opposition assault crashed on the rocks of their team’s obstinate defence, the supporters of Manchester United greeted a goalless draw and the accompanying point with the swirling of scarves and the singing of songs.

This after a game to which their team had contributed almost nothing at all.

Welcome to Manchester football in April 2017. One team not confident enough to go after a game they really needed to win, the other not good enough to take advantage of what at times resembled an open red door.

It is not as simple as that, of course. Jose Mourinho’s United are down on numbers and down on energy. They have several big games still to come.

Maybe Mourinho thinks that Liverpool – currently in third place in the Premier League – will throw enough points overboard between now and the season’s end to let both Manchester clubs in to the Champions League places.

Anyone seeing Liverpool play recently may think that he is right.

Or maybe, with games at Arsenal and Tottenham on the horizon, the United manager believes the hill to be too steep anyway.

Maybe the Europa League – with United at the semi final stage – represents a more likely path in to Europe and, as such, this was a night to preserve emotional energy and an unbeaten league record that now stands at 24 games.

So, no, it is not as simple as all that but what is undisputed is that United’s approach to this night of football made for a very peculiar spectacle indeed.

Only the late sending-off of Marouane Fellaini and a disallowed City goal breathed any sense of life or occasion in to it at all.

We have seen many things on derby day in recent seasons but we have rarely seen anything like this, a derby with only one team playing.

It is not unusual to see Mourinho teams defend in big games and the Portuguese will doubtless argue that injury had robbed him of the players he needed to try and dominate this match.

So, yes, maybe we should have expected a bespoke Mourinho performance. Close it down and then chase hard for a victory on the counter towards the end.


Midfielder Ander Herrera missed a headed chance for United in the first half of the game

Except we didn’t really get that. We just got the first bit.

As City began to run out of any ideas they may have had earlier, this was a game that seemed ready made for a late dart at unlikely glory by United. We have seen it so many times before.

But even before Fellaini’s red card rendered the closing moments of the game so naturally one-side, United were showing absolutely no urgency.

They were walking towards free-kicks, dawdling over corners and seemed utterly disinclined to place any pressure on City’s substitute goalkeeper Willy Caballero.

Before half-time, the contest was equally one-sided but United did create two very good chances.

Claudio Bravo saved from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Ander Herrera headed wide at the far post.

This appeared to hint at possibilities for United late in the game. Maybe there would be some vulnerability at the back end against a City team that looked out on its feet after a 120-minute FA Cup semi-final defeat to Arsenal at Wembley on Sunday.

But if United’s players sense any opportunity then they didn’t chase it and almost certainly their reticence came on the back of clear instruction from the sidelines.

As the second half wore on, United’s record goal scorer Wayne Rooney remained on the bench and that told us everything about his future employment prospects in this parish and indeed the scope of United’s ambition.

So United went home with their pride and their unbeaten league record intact. Mourinho’s derby record in this first Old Trafford season reads a defeat, a win and a draw and he would have taken that at the start of a campaign many expected would herald the start of a City precession under Pep Guardiola.

Here, though, we watched two very underwhelming teams indeed. City were the better, of that there is no doubt.

They created some good chances but Sergio Aguero bookended the game by missing two of his own – one against the post and one wide – and that pretty much summed the thing up.

Watching it all unfold – or not unfold as the case may be – it was tempting to think back to a big game that took place here five years ago next week.

That ended City 1 United 0 and edged the home team towards their first Premier League title.

Here we were, half a decade and millions of pounds later, and this was a shoot-out for fourth place, not first. A look at the teams from that day and from this suggested little between them. Indeed, the City team of 2012 was perhaps a little stronger.

So that, and indeed the football we had to sit through last night, is indicative of how both these clubs have got as much wrong as they have right since the days we thought the top of the Premier League would flash red and sky blue for the rest of time.

A final thought is that two of City’s back four last night were bought by Mark Hughes, three managers ago. City did have a back four last night, by the way. They were the players not sweating much at the end.

Code:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4453528/The-Manchester-derby-sideshow-instead-title-bout.html
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