Bottom-placed Aston Villa held Premier League table-toppers Manchester City to a 0-0 draw at Villa Park in Remi Garde's first match in charge of the club.
Chances were few an far between throughout the contest, although Raheem Sterling should have put the visitors ahead with a close-range header.
Fernando rattled the woodwork with late header, while former Villa player Fabian Delph hit a low drive just wide of the target.
Villa failed to fashion a shot on target during the 90 minutes, but will be buoyed by their first Premier League point since August.
MATCH OVERVIEW
Aston Villa: 0
Manchester City: 0
Villa Park, Birmingham – 36,757
TALKING POINTS
City's failure to take all three points from their clash with the league cellar dwellers may come back to haunt them later in the title race.
Villa will just be happy to have ended their seven-game losing streak in the Premier League and started the reign of their new manager in a positive fashion.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Villa travel to Goodison Park to take on Everton, while City host Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium.
TWITTER INSIGHT
If you can't score, don't concede. On another day we would have won but we move on. #mcfcpic.twitter.com/DcXa2fXE9R
— Vincent Kompany (@VincentKompany) November 8, 2015Rémi Garde: I am pleased for the players. They worked very hard. They were rewarded with this good point. #AVFCpic.twitter.com/a5u4pu1s8S
— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) November 8, 2015QUOTES CORNER
Garde speaks about his first match in charge:
"It was a nice experience and a fantastic atmosphere. It was a tough game. I can be vey happy with my team today, I saw smiles on their faces.
"When you play with sadness it does not help you. I tried in the three training sessions we had to deliver my message. Nobody expected we were going to score two or three goals. The difference between the two teams before was huge. Making sure we were well organised defensively was my priority.
"Some of the players who didn't start today had problems during the week. Nobody will play because he's French or Spanish or British. I saw in training how good or bad they were."
City boss Manuel Pellegrini was disappointed with the draw:
"We're disappointed with the draw. I think we did enough to win the game. They had just one shot on our goal, we had three or four clear chances to score.
"Villa defended very well with nine or 10 players. We tried to break that line. Two or three of our chances were unlucky. This happens in football.
"Without Bony and without Sergio Aguero we don't have a player who plays inside the box. We have to try and work without them."
STATS SPECIALS
0 - Villa failed to hit a shot on target against Man City, the first time they've done this in a PL game since Aug 2014 under Lambert. Blank
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 8, 20150 - Man City have drawn two of their last three PL games 0-0, this after a run of 60 games without a goalless draw. Flummoxed.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 8, 2015