Guardiola urges patience with Man City's rebuild

Pep Guardiola urged patience as Manchester City look to get back to their very best.

The spoils were shared following an underwhelming 0-0 Manchester derby at Old Trafford on Sunday, as the visitors struggled to create opportunities against Manchester United's well-drilled defence.

City subsequently missed the chance to reclaim fourth place from Chelsea, who are a point ahead of the Citizens with seven games remaining, while Newcastle United would also overtake them with victory over struggling Leicester City on Monday.

With Kevin De Bruyne operating as the visitors' most advanced player in the absence of Erling Haaland, they created an expected of just 0.49 from nine shots, five of which were on target.

While Guardiola felt there were positives to take from his side's performance, he asked for time to get things clicking.

"It will take time," he told Sky Sports. "The players gave everything today. 

"There are a few things I'm happy with what I saw, but now, we need to achieve the target of qualifying for the Champions League, then next season is next season.

"We were really good in our intensity. In those terms, we are satisfied for the way we have done it.

"We have the control, but not in the right spots to hurt them in the first half; a little better in the first minutes of the second half.

"United have been an incredible transitional team, defending against us deep, with [Alejandro] Garnacho and the pace they have. They link inside, they know perfectly what they have to do. But we take the point.

"Against a 5-4-1, it's so narrow and congested. We should have been in some positions that we tried to get in, but weren't good enough to punish them."

This was just the third Manchester derby to finish 0-0 since the start of 2016-17 across all competitions, but Ruben Dias hailed the character and togetherness demonstrated by City.

"It was a very difficult game, it always is, they were dangerous," he told Sky Sports. "I feel like to leave today with a point is to add to our run to stay in the top four. There was a lot of fight from all of us.

"Even though it was not our best performance, the way we fought and everyone was connected. The way Bernardo [Silva] and Mateo [Kovacic] fought for every ball. The last effort from Omar [Marmoush] – completely drained, but he still went for it. That is what we are made of.

"Time will tell how far we are [away from our best level], but I definitely feel we are more solid; our attitude, how we fight for duels, we are able to suffer in difficult circumstances. The way we react when lost the ball, the principles of being what we are."

City have kept a clean sheet in successive Premier League games for the first time since May 2024, though they have failed to score in consecutive away matches in the competition for the first time since December 2020.