Traditionally there has been something of a split inside the Manchester City dressing room during a run-in. Some watch the other games, hoping for favourable results. Others don’t bother at all.

Raheem Sterling actually straddled both camps during the ding-dong battles with Liverpool in 2019 and 2022, both titles decided by a single point. Sterling would never stick a match on at home until text messages started pinging through that Liverpool were dropping points.

It became a running joke that he’d give in to temptation, reach for the remote, only for Liverpool to then score almost instantly. He kept coming back for more, but regardless City eventually prevailed.

There is the grim reality that Eddie Howe picking up another win pushes City out of the Premier League’s top five for the first time since mid-January. Newcastle are two points behind City with two games in hand.

Pep Guardiola was handed a favour by Brentford, but saw Fulham and Aston Villa close the gap in a congested field for Champions League qualification and, although their remaining games look gentler than those around them, City are still not threatening to produce a string of consistent performances. 

Manchester City must be careful they don’t let their run-in slip away with age catching up 

Kevin De Bruyne’s announcement he will leave could act as the starting pistol for change

The containment without entertainment in the insipid Manchester derby came as no surprise

It’s why the containment without entertainment at Old Trafford came as no great surprise, City and Manchester United with hands on each other’s foreheads from a distance.

It was an insipid derby and one that never felt as if it would burst into any sort of life. City have to be exceptionally careful that they don’t let this run-in drift in the way the trip across town did. No Champions League next season which, as things stand in the here and now, is eminently possible, would make new sporting director Hugo Viana’s job in the summer that bit harder.

City are already juggling ideas on who goes, whose time is up and who can give them more years, as they embark on a rebuild. It goes without saying that not being in Europe’s elite competition will severely impact their targets. Florian Wirtz, for example, might not be keen on kicking around in the Europa League.

So they have to sharpen minds ahead of Crystal Palace – notoriously a bogey team at the Etihad Stadium – on Saturday.

At Bournemouth and at United, Guardiola went for the tried and trusted in midfield, the ones to strangle matches in possession, with Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and Mateo Kovacic – City’s wise masters of the ball.

Just don’t call them the golden oldies. Silva was irked by suggestions that this group had now become too old down on the south coast last week, when City played in a similar vein to here.

‘I’m 30 years old, Kovacic is 30. You’re not talking about guys that are 36,’ he said. ‘So we have six bad months or four bad months and out of nowhere we’re old, we’re not good enough?

‘In the last eight seasons, we’ve won six Premier Leagues and after four bad months, we’re old? That’s people that don’t understand the game, never played the game and probably don’t understand a thing about football.’

Bernardo Silva (left) was irked by suggestions that this group had now become too old

But City’s midfielders were dispossessed eight times by United and didn’t lay a glove on them

Newcastle could knock City out of the top five on Monday night when they take on Leicester

Individually they are not old and individually they can all add value. But clearly, not all of them can operate together next year and De Bruyne’s announcement that his decade is coming to a close could act as the starting pistol for change.

City won the lowest percentage of duels in a single league-wide game throughout the season at United, seeing their midfielders dispossessed eight times.

They can be satisfied with the result in the context of the campaign, while recognising that not laying a glove on United is tough to take.

‘I saw many good things in the last three games in terms of the passion without the ball that we lost many, many times this season for many reasons,’ Guardiola said.

Be that as it may, but they will likely head into the final seven games of the season playing catch up.

At least they’ve got form with that.

Perhaps muscle memory will kick in.