Manchester City battled to a goalless draw with bitter cross-town rivals Manchester United in a drab Premier League encounter on Sunday afternoon.
Pep Guardiola’s side arrived at Old Trafford on matchday 31 of the Premier League season off the back of two consecutive wins across competitions – a feat which has been difficult at times in a trying season for the club.
The visitors struggled to build on this however, as they encountered a roadblock at Old Trafford with only a handful of attacks created over the course of 90 minutes against Ruben Amorim’s side.
Expectantly cagey, the game between the struggling Manchester pairing was largely tense with chances coming few and far between, seeing the first-half finish goalless and onlookers left relatively unentertained with proceedings.
Omar Marmoush had some opportunities following the restart, with the Egypt international leading proceedings from an attacking perspective from the left of the front-three, and the home side threatened too but the deadlock could not be broken by either side.
The result over in Trafford sees Manchester City remain in fifth position in the Premier League table while Manchester United are placed 13th in the top-flight table with only seven games remaining this season.
Here are Five Things We Learned from Sunday’s clash in the Manchester sunshine!
Europa League – Here We Come?
With more points dropped in what can only be described as a disappointing season, the possibility of Manchester City missing out on UEFA Champions League football becomes a reality.
Like the rest of the ongoing campaign for Pep Guardiola’s players, Sunday afternoon’s match was another disappointing outing which saw a win evade the Manchester City team once more.
With only seven Premier League games remaining, Manchester City really have to lock in and start grinding out the wins should they wish to play amongst the European elite come Autumn.
However, failing to secure Champions League football for the first time in well over a decade would not necessarily affect bringing in players in the summer like it potentially would for other clubs, given the attraction of playing under Pep Guardiola and recent years of silverware.
But such an outcome from the ongoing campaign would undoubtedly be a very disappointing step backwards for the club following the immense progress that Manchester City have made in recent years.