THE INDIE - BARTON TEMPERS UNITED'S AMBITION
Manchester City have so few good days at Old Trafford that once every blue moon would be regarded as frequent in comparison. But they had a sweet one yesterday and could count the trophies on their short trip home: the first team to score against Manchester United; the first to spoil their neighbour's 100 per cent start to the season; an unbeaten record of their own that now stretches to 13.
That leaves them just one short of their all-time mark in the top division, set in the 1976-77 campaign when they were runners-up and it would be difficult to make a case suggesting they did not deserve it. Sir Alex Ferguson tried, of course, but it was City who came closest to getting a winner, Edwin van der Sar making a flying save from Andy Cole in stoppage time.
"They scored with their first shot at goal," the Sir Curmudgeon of Old Trafford said of Joey Barton's equaliser. "It was a bit like last season. They parked themselves on the edge of box and looked for scraps. They scored with only 14 minutes to go and it gave them something to hang on to."
Even Wayne Rooney, free to roam and therefore the biggest influence on the game (is the penny dropping, Sven?), could not relax the visitors' grip. Ferguson's mood was soured not only by the surrendering of points to the old enemy but because the result means his team are now five points behind Chelsea even though he has stressed the need to match the champions step for step over the first weeks of the season. Yet, inspirational flashes from Rooney apart, and Ruud van Nistelrooy's finish, it was a match of fleeting superiority for United.
And Ferguson was wrong in at least one point: it is not like last season because City are now under the leadership of Stuart Pearce and they have developed an obduracy that was an elusive quality under Kevin Keegan. They came back from a goal down to beat Portsmouth two weeks ago and they almost did the same yesterday. "I certainly don't think we deserved to lose," Pearce said. "There's a great confidence in the dressing-room at the moment and a growing will not to get beaten."
THE OBSERVER - VAN DER SAR SPARES UNITED'S BLUSHES AS CITY'S STOCK RISES
Manchester City deserved this point and but for a tremendous save by Edwin van der Sar in stoppage time they would have had all three.
That might not have been a fair reflection of the game but United could not have complained. In a game of few chances, City created more clear-cut ones, and the one Trevor Sinclair carved out for Andy Cole at the end was the clearest of the lot.
The former United striker did exceptionally well to get a first-time shot on target and only Van der Sar's reactions saved United's blushes.
Gary Neville recently suggested the league title should always be United's first priority and the club should not get too fixated on the Champions League until domestic superiority had been re-established.
Sensible words, one would have thought, so it was something of a surprise to see Sir Alex Ferguson resting Roy Keane with an eye on the midweek visit to Villarreal. This was a Manchester derby, after all and one of the rare ones that started with City in the higher league position.
Alan Smith initially struggled in the Keane midfield role, principally because when he shouted for the ball his colleagues did not surrender it quite so promptly as is their habit with the captain, though the former Leeds player was behind United first real attack.
A firmly driven pass found Wayne Rooney on the edge of the area and a well-executed turn and lay-off gave Park Ji-Sung a shooting chance, only for his angled drive to miss by a couple of feet. Smith and Park were also involved in the second best chance of the first half, when patient build-up play led to a cross from John O'Shea on the right that the Korean nodded into Ruud van Nistelrooy's path. But the Holland striker scooped a volley over the bar with only David James to beat.
SUNDAY TIMES - BARTON'S THE TOAST OF CITY
"Mr Grumpy", aka Ferguson, gave City scant credit. "It was like last season," he said. "They just parked themselves on the edge of their box and played off scraps." His irritation probably had more to do with the league table than the opposition’s obdurate determination.
It is a long time since City came into one of these derbies better placed than United, and their competitiveness under Pearce, the August manager of the month, suggests Ferguson will have to endure a few more tight scraps for Mancunian bragging rights.
There was a disappointing moment before the kick-off, when a minute’s silence in memory of Noel Cantwell, the former United and Ireland captain, was interrupted by one or two idiots in the City end, but when play got under way the rivalry between the two sides was of a more acceptable sort, with every ball contested as if the next Ferrari depended on it.
United, somewhat surprisingly, opted to rest Roy Keane, using Alan Smith in central midfield instead. Smith is a gutsy battler but he is no midfield strategist, and there is no doubt who City will have preferred facing. As befits the home team, United were more assertive, with Park Ji Sung and Wayne Rooney dropping deep when the situation warranted.
Ferguson favours a narrow 4-3-3, allowing both wide men to move into the middle when the fancy takes them — a situation Rooney infinitely prefers to his ersatz winger’s role with England in midweek — and after the tantrums of Windsor Park he was back to something like his beguiling best.
United made all the running and Park and Paul Scholes both went close with shots from 12 yards, then Van Nistelrooy, stretching, volleyed over at close range. City, battling hard on the back foot, thought they were going to reach the haven of the interval on level terms, but they were wrong. In added time, a free kick 30 yards out was rolled by Rooney to Scholes, whose howitzer drive was diverted late by Van Nistelrooy. David James, wrong-footed, seemed to have no chance, and having pulled off a stunning reflex save, he could count himself unlucky when the loose ball fell obligingly back at the feet of the Dutch predator, who tucked it past him from eight yards.
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH - VAN DER SAR SAVES UNITED FROM BLUES
The establishment of a new Mancunian order was never going to be achieved in a matter of weeks but City, after this defiant draw, remain above United in the table.
What a start it is proving to Stuart Pearce's first full season in charge. And it could have been ever better: two minutes into stoppage time, Edwin van der Sar had to make a brilliant save from a sweet half-volley by the former United striker Andrew Cole.
That would have completed a remarkable transformation. Sir Alex Ferguson's team, having promised to hit the road running in order to keep pace with Chelsea, looked more than capable of maintaining a 100 per cent record after Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored his fourth Premiership goal in as many matches just before half-time. But City kept fighting, nobly observing the derby tradition, and, with a quarter of an hour left, Joey Barton's faint diversion of a Darius Vassell shot brought them level.