The 2023 finalists both won back-to-back league titles last season and are currently ranked first and third in the world in the Opta Power Rankings: We’re told that games like this on Matchday 1 of the brand new Champions League make Manchester City’s later clashes with Sparta Prague and Slovan Bratislava worth their inevitable futility. Hmmm.

TNT Sports’ pundits did their best to build pre-match excitement, claiming that Inter were out for “revenge” for their defeat in the final two years ago, while City were “looking to get off to a good start”. But at the risk of coming across as old hands in their ways, we couldn’t help but be disappointed by a game that, when it counts, is unlikely to matter. A suspicion bolstered by the fact that Inter’s captain and talisman Lautaro Martinez was initially benched ahead of Sunday’s Milan derby, and City’s somewhat aloof performance on an opening night of supposedly heightened significance.

City never really got going. Inter were more dangerous in the first half, with new signing Piotr Zielinski working well with Nicolo Barella in midfield, while Rodri looked unusually sluggish and uncertain after the game. the big structure before his first start of the season.

Mehdi Taremi caused City problems in transition in a one-two with Marcus Thuram, who missed a good chance from the penalty spot after a ball was passed to him, while left-back Carlos Augusto fired a shot straight at Ederson and a Matteo Darmian effort was saved by Josko Gvardiol as the City goalkeeper was caught stumbling in front of his goal. It felt as if Simone Inzaghi had outmanoeuvred Pep Guardiola.

Erling Haaland, hoping to score his 100th City goal, fired wide once and had a header easily saved, but that was as far as Yann Sommer went in a first half that saw City struggle to break through Inter’s solid middle, their blindside runs and cutbacks ineffective due to a combination of excellent defending, poor passing and a couple of aerial shots.

Guardiola’s mood at half-time will not have been helped by the renewed injury to Kevin De Bruyne, who missed 41 games for his club and country last season.

What you didn’t often see were the mass expressions of protest on social media about City’s bad luck, inexplicably mixed with conspiracy theories of varying degrees about the man’s desperate bid to deny them wins and titles – such as we have had to endure at Arsenal X in the nine days that feel like half a season since Martin Odegaard was limped off for Norway in their match against Austria.

MORE COVERAGE OF MAN CITY FFP ON F365…
👉 F365 Interview: Hargreaves urges Man City to avoid points deduction for ‘another penalty’
👉 Ten possible penalties for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola after claims of Premier League ‘exclusion’
👉 Five options for Manchester City fans after being kicked out of the Premier League

City are undoubtedly better prepared to deal with an injury to their creator-in-chief than Arsenal. Last season they won 19 of their 26 games without De Bruyne and he was replaced here by Ilkay Gundogan. Phil Foden came on at half-time for Savinho as Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes remained on the bench.

But there will also not be such a passionate disregard for reality after De Bruyne’s injury as was shown by most Arsenal fans, but almost certainly – hopefully – not by the majority, because an injury problem that is portrayed by the media as a crisis (which includes us) take advantage of the clicks of the irrational subgroup of Gooners.

When Sunday kicks off, Arsenal will be without two players they would have expected to start – Odegaard and Merino – as well as Oleksandr Zinchenko, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney, who would definitely not be starting. Manchester City will be without De Bruyne, assuming his injury is serious enough, as well as Nathan Ake and Oscar Bobb. There is not much between their respective crises, if we can call them that.

Foden had a few chances after coming on, and his best shot came straight at Sommer after some good work from Jack Grealish and Gündogan. Sommer wasted City’s best chances in the 89th and 94th minutes. His first header hit the Inter goalkeeper’s gloves, while he was unable to stop the second from flying over the bar.

They were the more dangerous side in the second half, but Inter remained dangerous on the counterattack and Darmian had a great chance to win the game after a spectacular move, but he inexplicably back-heeled the ball – like Guti did to Karim Benzema in 2010 – when he was in front of Ederson. Alas, Darmian is not Guti and his attempt at a brilliant pass fell to a City player.

The 0-0 draw should not be a problem for City, who will surely finish their remaining seven games with five wins to automatically qualify for the knockout stages.

And it’s telling that the notable consequence of this goalless and low-quality clash between two of Europe’s top three teams was De Bruyne’s injury. And even that isn’t that much of a talking point, as his value lies mainly in perhaps – but probably not – preventing Arsenal fans from moaning in the three days leading up to a really important game.