MANCHESTER, United Kingdom: Bruno Fernandes praised Manchester United’s “near-perfect” performance to end Manchester City’s 21-game winning streak in all competitions with a 2-0 victory at the Etihad this morning.

Fernandes’ early penalty and Luke Shaw’s first goal in the Premier League after three years brought United back into second place, 11 points behind City.

“Today we almost did everything perfectly,” Fernandes said. “The league is not a sprint event, this is a marathon. We have to do our best and not think of other teams.”

United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted the win was too late to liven up their chances of chasing the Premier League title.

“They were too far (in front) for us to catch up,” Solskjaer said.

“Even today they they put us in a stressful situation when playing against a very good team.”

City have not fallen behind in 20 Premier League games since their last defeat to Tottenham in November.

“We played well apart from the first 10 minutes,” City boss Pep Guardiola said. “Unfortunately we are not so sharp up front.

“The news is not today, the main news is to win 21 times in a row. This result helped us a lot to understand how difficult it is. Most importantly the next match. There are still 30 points to be won and we have to win again.”