Manchester United vs Manchester City match report: Jesse Lingard and Chris Smalling go close to winning derby

The solitary moment befitting this occasion came when evening was drawing on and only seven minutes remained: a beautiful, clipped pass from the right outstep of Anthony Martial which Jesse Lingard, a substitute growing in stature at Manchester United, rose to lift on to the crossbar, with all defenders lost and out of sight.

It was the briefest, thrilling hint of why the 19-year-old French player has allowed United to begin to think they can believe again, yet one which had frustration attached. Nowhere in manager Louis van Gaal’s analysis of why United mustered only one shot on goal in a game which delivered up two was there an admission that Martial, the ideal spear for United’s attack, had been consigned to the margins because of a misplaced faith in Wayne Rooney. Instead, the long-haul flight from Moscow and Van Gaal’s own misplaced sense of injustice both featured.

The evidence that City feared Martial was right there in front of Van Gaal’s eyes. Two of their three first-half bookings were incurred by players – Vincent Kompany and Fernandinho – who hacked him down to prevent him taking full flight.

Yet Rooney led the line, and there was no more graphic paradigm of how much he was labouring than the 71st-minute moment when Lingard located him on the right side on the United box. He shipped the ball square, into nowhere, when the trigger reaction you had expected was a drive towards goal. It is no exaggeration to say he looked like he wanted rid of the thing.

The spotlight was all the fiercer because Van Gaal had put him up there, in the eye of the attack and the storm. Needless to say the Dutchman treated a diplomatic inquiry about Rooney last night – couched in terms that he is trying and perhaps trying too hard – with rudeness and discourtesy. “I have to talk every week about Rooney, why?” he said. “Because he is a top player,” was the reply. “Then you have to write it. It is your opinion. I don’t give any more answers about Wayne Rooney. I am sick of them.” No, not “opinion” but the evidence of what we see in plain view. Rooney has made fools of too many doubters for any to suggest that, at 30 on Saturday, the striker in him is history, but the very least to be said is that the man is struggling. The only vivid moment he contributed in the first half came when United’s trainer pulled an industrial-sized stapler from a kit bag and applied it to a cut on Rooney’s head.

City’s own weapons were blunt, too. Raheem Sterling, removed after 55 minutes, was a shadow of his best and Kevin De Bruyne was overwhelmed by an occasion which an impressive Marcos Rojo cut him out of. You wondered why Manuel Pellegrini had not taken a look at a team-sheet and viewed Van Gaal’s puzzling choice of Antonio Valencia, at Matteo Darmian’s expense, as an opportunity for Sterling to exploit. Much of City’s work came down Rojo’s flank instead. Wilfried Bony offered nothing to fear. Sergio Aguero’s hamstring lay-off proved significant, when all was said and done.

For all that, the result will satisfy both sides, not losing being considerably more significant than not winning. It is a curious time for these clubs – harbouring high hopes of the months to come, yet neither really knowing if they will find the consistency to achieve something historic in a Premier League season which seems destined to be more fluid. Breakthrough moments could wait for a day when less emotional capital was at stake. It was the supporters who suffered. When neither goalkeeper had been gainfully employed at half-time – not a solitary shot on goal in that period – the analysts at Opta scoured their 19 years of data for a precedent across one half of an Old Trafford home game. They found none.

At the end of it all, Pellegrini looked the more satisfied and he did not deny Van Gaal’s inference that he had travelled across the city with no more ambition than to dig in. His side go back to the top of the Premier League, though with no great sense of security or superiority. The recall of Kompany need not have occupied so much pre-match conjecture. The Belgian commanded his box and dominated Rooney, offering a strong riposte to the questions Pellegrini had raised by dropping him for two games. It is one of those occasions when defensive quality should be given its dues. Nicolas Otamendi impressed for City, too. Chris Smalling’s positioning was excellent, even though his distribution is distinctly mixed.

United argued bitterly that Sterling had tripped Ander Herrera as he went to challenge him on the edge of his own box. The complaint was dubious. Herrera seemed to be looking for the foul. Penalty claims about Otamendi’s challenge on Rooney, four minutes from time, were equally thin.

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When Sterling had gone, De Bruyne was switched to the left flank to challenge Valencia, though to no material effect. A full 82 minutes had elapsed when a goalkeeper was – after a fashion – put to work. City substitute Jesus Navas’s arced shot bounced several times before landing at the feet of David De Gea.

Martial tried to create something out of the margins. The plaintive look on his face when he took the ball past Bacary Sagna, 15 minutes from time, but ran it out over the dead-ball line under the close watch of Fernandinho, said much.

But United began to come closer to an effort in anger. Smalling’s header from Mata’s corner was sent wide. Lingard’s arrival had added real menace before the closing moments brought Joe Hart’s first save, after a long punted ball which Marouane Fellaini headed down for Smalling to strike. The goalkeeper dropped on to it sharply. Spoils shared. Nothing to fear this morning. But both sides will need to find better to claim the honours that matter, somewhere down the track.