Another big English Premier League game ended in a 0-0 draw after both Leicester City and Manchester City failed to find the mark at the King Power Stadium on Monday.
Leicester needed a win to go back to the top of the table, after Arsenal's 2-0 victory over Bournemouth took them down to second place, but the likes of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez left their scoring boots at home, with Manchester City unable to find that elusive goal owing to a couple of outstanding saves from Kasper Schmeichel.
The 0-0 draw means Leicester stay second, albeit only on goal difference, while Manchester City are third, three points behind the top two.
Manager Claudio Ranieri, whose team went down to Liverpool 1-0 on Boxing Day, admitted he was happy with the result, while insisting Leicester City, despite being joint top at the halfway stage of the season, are very much outside shots for the title, owing to the strength in depth of the other teams.
"I'm very pleased but I'm also very pleased with a clean sheet against these great champions," Ranieri told the club's official website. "I think we showed a very good performance and after the Liverpool defeat we've played so well.
"This league is very crazy, nobody wants to win it. We're the basement and the other teams are a villa with a swimming pool. It's not easy for us."
Manuel Pellegrini will rue some of the missed chances – even if Leicester had plenty of those as well – while Manchester City also had a decent claim for a penalty when Sergio Aguero went down, a little theatrically, under the challenge of Gokhan Inler, second before he was taken off.
"We did more than Leicester to win the game," Pellegrini said. "We had more possession, more attempts on goal, more clear options but it was a tough game against a very good team playing away.
"I always say if you cannot win, don't lose but I think we did all that we could to try and win the game. We didn't come to try to draw. We spent the whole game going for the three points.
"[The penalty incident] was far from my position so I can't talk about that but the important thing is that it was up to the referee and he made his decision."
