Carrick hails defence after dull derby draw
Midfielder Michael Carrick praised Manchester United’s defence after they held on following Marouane Fellaini’s sending-off to take a point against Manchester City. Fellaini saw red for headbutting Sergio Aguero as fourth-placed City retained a one-point lead over their rivals following a frantic goalless draw at the Etihad Stadium. Fellaini’s moment of madness – a clear butt on Aguero as the pair clashed following a trip by the Belgian – came six minutes from time in a tense stalemate. “We would love to come here and win the game and we aimed to do that,” Carrick said. “We thought we could catch them on the break. We did have a couple of chances. “We were defending for large spells of the game, but did that very well and at the end there was a bit of excitement and a bit of a flurry and I thought we saw the game out very well. “It makes things a bit more difficult when you go down to 10. There wasn’t too long left, but those six minutes felt a long time to see out, but we managed to do that. “It’s a point. It’s tight up there (at the top of the table), but it’s a point we can take from there and move on.” Aguero came closer than anyone to breaking the deadlock, hitting the base of the post from a yard in the ninth minute, and City piled on the pressure right up to Gabriel Jesus’ disallowed goal in injury-time only for United’s 10 men to hold out for a scrappy point. Jose Mourinho may have been missing the likes of Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Juan Mata but in uniting Fellaini, Carrick and Ander Herrera in midfield he appeared to be acknowledging his side were outgunned. So it proved, as Pep Guardiola’s side enjoyed the lion’s share of possession and opportunities, though United had chances too.