MANCHESTER // Six games, six clean sheets.
It is a small sample size, perhaps, but a significant statistic nonetheless.
As Vincent Kompany left the Old Trafford turf, it is with two immaculate records still intact.
Manchester City are yet to concede a league goal with their captain on the pitch this season.
They have never lost a Premier League derby he started.
There can be a danger of inflating the importance of certain individuals in team games.
In Kompany’s case, however, the figures tend to support the evidence of the naked eye.
City have acquired the two costliest centre-backs in Premier League history, but they never prevented opponents from scoring when the £74 million (Dh416.2m) duo of Nicolas Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala were paired.
Kompany brought order where there had been chaos.
The woodwork and Joe Hart came to his assistance but, as 82 minutes elapsed without a shot on target, Manchester United were otherwise repelled comfortably.
The dullest of derbies at least resolved one debate, about the pecking order of the City centre-backs.
Martin Demichelis, whose form was finest last season, is now fourth in line and reduced to making cameos in midfield in an attempt to preserve parity.
Kompany, who manager Manuel Pellegrini said on Friday had lost his status as an untouchable, is the alpha male once more.
Theirs may be an uneasy alliance, but it remains one that Pellegrini must preserve.
There are those in both the City and Belgium camps who wonder if Kompany has acquired a little too much power.
The Chilean was angered that, against his wishes, his captain made his comeback for Belgium following a month on the sidelines with a calf problem. Yet it is that dedication, that complete belief in his own considerable abilities Kompany possesses, is strength and weakness alike.
His commitment is a constant, a character trait that has brought red cards, injuries and acts of defiance.
He was booked for a lunge at Anthony Martial, but a centre-back of his pace and power invariably believes he can win the ball.
When he does, a vocal character looks the natural leader who is an obvious choice to lead club and country.
City looked rudderless at the back in Kompany’s absence, when clean sheets were conspicuous by their absence.
His return brought the return of the resilience City required, although it was no one-man effort.
The great adventurers were unusually negative after the break.
“It was a very tactical game,” Pellegrini said. “I prefer to play in another way but we defended well.”
They had numbers behind the ball, two defensive midfielders becoming three when Demichelis strolled on, in a point-saving exercise that was only endangered when Jesse Lingard hit the bar.
The purist in Pellegrini remarked bitterly that others are praised for tactical planning when they draw away from home in such fashion.
The implication is that he will not be.
As City had scored 13 goals on their previous four trips to Old Trafford. This was an unwanted antidote.
They have often dominated Manchester United.
Here they dulled them, though the mundanity of the game rendered that an easier task.
As derbies go, this was scarcely a blood-and-thunder affair.
The force of a collision with Kompany nonetheless left Wayne Rooney requiring staples in his head.
If United’s talismanic attacker is declining, City’s is recuperating.
With Sergio Aguero, like the creator-in-chief David Silva, injured, Pellegrini’s resort to pragmatism was enforced.
His side were shorn of some of their stardust and, with neither Raheem Sterling nor Wilfried Bony seizing the opportunity to impress, they failed to score for the first time this season.
It made it a day for the solid citizens and few were as unyielding as Kompany.
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