Manchester United and Manchester City on Saturday played one of the most derbies of recent times as the points were shared in a goalless draw at the Old Trafford. In another match of the day, Chelsea’s title challenge suffered a shoch 1-0 defeat at Everton.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was under pressure to pull up a win after his side’s Champions League exit last week with a midweek defeat against RB Leipzig.
The beleaguered Norwegian boss needed something to win back the fans’support amid rumours that he might soon be shown the door.
However there were little options for the teams to get excited as the neighbours failed to accelerate with just two shots on target each.
What’s disappointing from United’s perspective is that that they now have only one win from last four matches in across competitions. In Premier League the number is one win from last six outings.
However, according to the United manager that was their best performance against Pep Guardiola’s men in recent times as they restricted City to just one big chance when David de Gea saved from Riyad Mahrez midway through the first-half.
“In my time against Manchester City that’s the best performance we have had. Not the best result but the best performance,” Solskjaer said.
“Tactically we knew they were going to give us some problems but defensively we were excellent. With the ball we didn’t create as much as we wanted.”
The results left United at eighth, with City trailing their neighbours by a point at ninth.
Meanwhile, at the Goodison Park, Everton rode high on the atmosphere created by the return of fans for the first time since March to comeback to the winning ways against a much stronger Chelsea team.
A 22nd minute penalty, resulting from a rare display of error from Chelsea goalkeeper Eduard Mendy, proved to be the only difference as Chelsea suffered their first defeat in 18 matches across competitions.
“The impact was really strong,” said Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti on the difference even a small number of fans made.
“It is really important to have the supporters, it is a totally different environment here completely.”
Carlo Ancelotti’s men had won just once in their last seven Premier League maatches. The win placed them at seventh in the table with 20 points, while Chelsea remained thrird with 22 points.
Ancelotti’s men had won just once in their previous seven games after a flying start to the campaign had taken them top of the table in early October.