LONDON: Honours ended even for the old boys of Wolfsburg and Bayern in their first taste of a Manchester derby.

But after a goalless draw at Old Trafford it was City’s Kevin de Bruyne who had more reason for satisfaction than Bastian Schweinsteiger.

The single point was enough to keep City at the top of the table, albeit now only on goal difference, ahead of Arsenal. They were also fortunate in the closing minutes when United substitute Jesse Lingard hit the bar and then Chris Smalling had a low shot pushed around a post by City keeper Joe Hart.

By then Schweinsteiger was sitting on bench. He had a tidy first half but was unable to make enough of a difference after moving further forward after the interval. On the one occasion when he found himself in space in the penalty box he dithered too long over the ball and City cleared for a corner.

It was only after Maraoune Fellaini had replaced Schweinsteiger in the last 74^th minutes that United were able to put City under pressure for the first time.

City, with Nicolas Ottamendi and returning Vincent Kompany solid in central defence, lacked an attacking threat of their own but had greater excuse.

De Bruyne was largely overrun on the City right by United fullback Marcos Rojo in the first half and had hardly any more luck after switching to the left in the second half. Yaya Toure was City’s liveliest player. The others, De Bruyne included, clearly missed not having the injured Sergio Aguero and David Silva to play up to.

Sunderland stepped off the bottom of the table by winning their sixth successive north-east derby against Newcastle, the longest such sequence in the history of the confrontation.

Their 3-0 victory was the Blacks Cats’ first win of the season and thus the first for new manager Sam Allardyce at second attempt after his arrival in place of Dick Advocaat.

The match turned on an incident just before half-time when Newcastle captain Fabricio Coloccini was sent off for fouling Steven Fletcher. Adam Johnson converted the penalty and Billy Jones and Fletcher himself capitalised on Sunderland’s one-man advantage after the interval.

Tottenham’s Harry Kane scored the second hat-trick of his Premier career in a decisive 5-1 victory at promoted Bournemouth, his first goal a penalty. Kane had only scored one league goal previously this season but two for England.

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