Manchester derby ends in a bore draw | OneFootball

Manchester United and Manchester City played out a tepid derby at Old Trafford that ended goalless.

Ruben Amorim's side were set up deeper than usual to try and soak up pressure before attempting to break the press and counter quickly. To match this, it seemed like Pep Guardiola – perhaps wary of his recent meetings with the Portuguese manager – preached caution from his players going forward.

As a result, it was a game of few chances and very little overall quality. One exception to that is Bruno Fernandes, by far the best player of the bitch and the orchestrator of any play of quality. Meanwhile we didn't see too much of Kevin De Bruyne in his last Manchester derby.

Guardiola did bring on Jérémy Doku and Jack Grealish to try and liven up his team's attack in the second half but besides some good moments of skill from Doku, City still struggled to create.

With the game ticking on, it was the home side who looked more likely to create anything but were devoid of the ability to play the final pass or to find the right finish.

Indeed, it was United who ended the game with 13 attempts of which only two were on target – with Joshua Zirkzee notably forcing a save from Ederson – while City managed just nine shocks of which five were on target.

The game was probably summed up by Ederson who with just a few minutes remaining in stoppage time took his time for a goal kick that implied that the Citizens were happy enough for the points to be shared.

One point at least puts United back ahead of Tottenham Hotspur in the table while fifth-placed City were unable to take advantage of Chelsea drawing with Brentford earlier today.