5 Things We Learned From Manchester United’s Dull Draw Against Manchester City

A top of the table clash saw old rivals Manchester United host Manchester City in a derby which actually has a lot of significance in the title race for the Premier League, City were looking to get back to the top of the league while Manchester United were looking to overtake their city rivals. This match had seen a glut of goals in recent games but this time around the game ended in a goalless draw.

The best chance was for Manchester United who saw Jesse Lingard hit the crossbar after a great ball over the top from Anthony Martial. With both clubs cancelling each other out, we provide the five talking points from the game.

Defence wins the game

Everyone predicted a lot of goals in this tie, after all we have seen a 4-3, 6-1 and much more from these games but two well-drilled defences negated the other’s attack. Vincent Kompany returned to the centre of the City defence while Manchester United had Marcos Rojo doing incredibly well in the game. The teams did try to attack but their defence starred more than the attack and neither team should be upset about it, after all, every manager wants his team to keep a clean sheet.

Martial was the bright spot for United

A game where many expected Wayne Rooney to shine actually saw another United attacker pick up the reins. While there really wasn’t much to report in terms of attacking ability, there was one man trying to get things done for Manchester United. Anthony Martial was the bright spark for the team and was looking to take on defenders as well; he also created the one great chance for Jesse Lingard and can be then seen as the one positive taken from an attacking point of view for the red half of Manchester.

Kevin De Bruyne was handled well

The big money signing was expected to be the main man, at least for this game but the Belgian was shackled incredibly well by Marcos Rojo. The Argentine did not give De Bruyne any space or time at all and completely took him out of the game, probably this was Rojo’s best performance this season for Manchester United and was a reminder to De Bruyne that he needs to step up if he is to have as many commanding performances for Manchester City as he did for Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga.

City miss their firepower

Manchester City might have started with Raheem Sterling and Wilfried Bony but the duo hardly made a dent into the Manchester United defence. City were without their awesome attacking duo of Sergio Aguero and David Silva and it showed in their final output today. The fine finishing skills and brilliant movement from the two was missed a lot today and City will be expecting a quick return from the pair.

A decent result for both teams

While neither team got the upper hand in the game, they should not be disappointed with the result. City went back to the top of the league while United stay just a couple of points behind the leaders. The most important thing for either team was not to lose the game and the players knew that as well. There weren’t a lot of tough tackles or blood and thunder style of attacks, the teams didn’t want to lose and they made sure of that.