WHERE HAS YOUR TEAM GONE, PEP?
United fell from grace years ago, but for City this feels new...
THE struggles of Manchester United t his season have been annotated meticulously and their manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has been subjected to much mockery.
But the struggles of the club that once wore the crown have also acted as camouflage for another truth: if they are not the team they once were, neither are their rivals from across the city.
Manchester City, too, appear to have fallen from grace. The team that fought out this dull, attritional draw was not the vibrant side that won back-to-back championships and delighted us with scintillating, mesmerising attacking football.
This was a City team that looks as if they have lost their confidence. United lost their mojo a long time ago. For City, it all feels new.
The uncertainty was exemplified in the closing seconds when Gabriel Jesus was clean through on goal and advancing on David de Gea.
Instead of shooting, though, he inexplicably chose to check his run and look for the support. There was no one there. The chance was gone. I t was the story of a dank Manchester evening.
On this drab, dispiriting evidence, Manchester is neither red nor blue. Rather, it is a soporific shade of grey. United did little to impress in a dull, uninspired game but neither did City. United were marginally better in the first half, City were the better team in the second half. But this was a stalemate neither deserved to win. There was some justice in that at least.
When the 183rd Manchester derby was over and the table was updated, United were seventh and City were eighth.
That felt about right. There was nothing in this match that suggested either side are going to start closing the small gap on Spurs any time soon. There was a lot of careful, laboured build-up play, all of it signifying precisely nothing. The memory still lingers of how easily City were picked off at Spurs last month and perhaps the fact they managed a clean sheet here was an improvement of sorts. But without Sergio Aguero, they look shorn of threat. And instead of being first among equals in this City side, Kevin De Bruyne is looking a little marooned, as if he does not quite know where his supporting cast has gone. Rumours still abound that Lionel Messi will arrive at the Etihad next month. Let’s hope so. If anyone can give this City team a jump-start, it’s him. Maybe United, knocked out of the Champions League in midweek, will be more pleased with the result. They are unbeaten in five Premier League games now and they did not suffer in comparison with City. But in this match, at least, that was not a particularly high bar. This might be a strange season with strange results and strange pacesetters but it would be stretching credibility to think that United could challenge for the title. The ghosts of derbies past flitted across the turf as they always do in these games. In their dreams, City fans would have seen Edin Dzeko running on to David Silva’s exquisite volleyed pass here in 2011 and burying his shot past De Gea to seal a 6-1 win and inflict on United their worst home defeat since February 1955.
Maybe they would have thought of Denis Law’s backheeled goal at Old Trafford for City in 1974 on the day that set the seal on United’s relegation from the top flight.
Or Mario Balotelli sidefooting home a precise shot and lifting up his shirt to reveal a message asking: ‘Why always me?’
United f ans would have remembered Wayne Rooney’s overhead kick in February 2011 and Michael Owen’s late winner in the 4- 3 classic between the sides in 2009, perhaps the most dramatic contest in the long history between the rivals.
This game, sadly, was nothing like that. United burst into life, briefly, after 10 minutes when Paul Pogba played a delicate chip into the path of Bruno Fernandes. His shot was blocked but when Luke Shaw swung in the resulting corner, Victor Lindelof flicked it on at the near post and Scott McTominay was within an inch of turning it over the line as he slid in at the back post.
At the other end, Raheem Sterling and De Bruyne worked some magic with a one-two that freed Sterling in the box. He swerved his way past two United defenders but when he found space to shoot, the ball was blocked by Harry Maguire.
A patient City build-up midway through the half quickened when Riyad Mahrez took possession and floated a clever pass into the path of Jesus but he scooped over.
Ten minutes before the interval, City came close again. They broke at speed and when Jesus played the ball square to De Bruyne, he swept it instantly onwards to Mahrez. The winger checked inside on to his left foot but De Gea blocked the shot with his legs and De Bruyne drove the rebound over the bar.
United thought they had won a penalty two minutes into the second half when Kyle Walker brought down Marcus Rashford in the box but, after referee Chris Kavanagh pointed to the spot, VAR showed that Rashford had strayed offside in the build-up.
Rashford was unable to convert another half chance before the rest of t he half sli d i nto attrition.
There was no conviction from either side and no inspiration.
Fernandes had a late chance and blew it. Then, Jesus wasted an opportunity. Unless City find significant improvements from somewhere, t hey had better s t art concentrating on Europe.