BOLD BAGGIES HOLD A LACKLUSTRE CITY

SOME things about Manchester City remain the same. Territory, possession, control. They remain as heavily weighted in their favour as they ever were under Pep Guardiola. But that is where the good news begins and ends. For the current City do not look much like City at all, not as we have known and admired them anyway. The Manchester derby at the weekend was insipid and then there was this. With the second-worst team in the Premier League as opposition — a side with one previous point earned away from home all season — City were strangely flat once again.

They scored first through Ilkay Gundogan after half an hour only to concede carelessly soon after, a Semi Ajayi shot deflected in off City defender Ruben Dias. What followed was almost 50 minutes of huff and puff, the occasional shot or half chance and not much else. West Brom hardly saw the grass of the City half for much of this game and that is something that usually ends one way at the Etihad. Here, though, City were kept at bay with relative ease until the very last moments. Three times, former Manchester United goalkeeper Sam Johnstone saved at the death to deny Kevin De Bruyne from a free-kick and then repel pointblank headers from Gundogan and Raheem Sterling. The latter two were superb saves but out of keeping with what he had been asked to produce prior to added time. A thrilled Johnstone said: ‘We’re buzzing with that. We rode our luck at times but we deserved that result.’ City’s Gundogan complained: ‘We deserved better, we had the chances. It’s disappointing to get one point. We must win these kind of games. ‘But we are human beings, not machines. We struggle as well.’