Liverpool and City fail to thrill in the race for fourth

Manchester City 0 Liverpool 0. Was it the most boring game this season in the Premier League? If it wasn't, then heaven help the poor people who have to witness a match more moribund than the dross served up by Manchester City and Liverpool at Eastlands.

It was a bore draw, a 0-0 stalemate that did neither side much good. There were just two shots on goal the whole game, the lowest number in the top flight this season, and Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez admitted it hadn't been a day for thrills. "As a manager you have to see your team as strong in defence; in attack we have to be a little bit better," he said. "Both teams were working hard trying to stop the other."

The northwest rivals went into the match hoping to stake a claim for the elusive fourth place ahead of Aston Villa and Tottenham, but neither City nor Liverpool displayed any desire to make a bold statement of intent. And with Villa thrashing Burnley 5-2 and Tottenham disposing of Wigan 3-0, only one point now separates the quartet with Spurs in fourth place on goal difference, though City and Villa have a game in hand.

The draw continues City's hopeless record against Liverpool in the League – they've beaten the Reds just twice in the past 15 years – while for the Merseysiders the result confirms that without the firepower of the injured Fernando Torres they will always struggle to score goals. They've managed just one in the last three games, a David Ngog effort against Romania side Unirea Urzinceni in their midweek Europa Cup victory.

Torres did come on as a late substitute, though if many of the Liverpool fans woke up to notice it was hard to tell. There were also cameo appearances from the Sky Blues' Craig Bellamy and Liverpool's Yossi Benayoun, playing his first football since breaking a rib in the FA Cup defeat to Reading last month.

And with City without Carlos Tevez, still in Argentina following the premature birth of his daughter, goalscoring chances were as rare as an Argentine flag on the Falkland Islands. The first came on the stroke of half-time when Martin Skrtel rose to meet a Steven Gerrard corner and headed wide.

In the second half Emmanuel Adebayor forced a sharp save from Pepe Reina low down and that was as good as it got. City's Pablo Zabaleta won the man of the match award - presumably his name was the first out of the hat – while his manager, Roberto Mancini said afterwards: "For me it was a good game." Who says Italians don't have a sense of humour? ·