Media watch:
City beat them 3-1: "Wonderful", "Privilege to watch", "44 pass move", "League over".
We beat them 3-1: "the mancs were crap".
It was the first 4pm ko at home against them since 17 December 1995. Clearly the bizzies are ok with later ko times nowadays. For the last 23 years, they've wanted every home game over with asap.
Wouldn't blame Alisson for their goal, it hit off his knee by accident. The first goal we scored was a joy to behold. Firmino starting the move, Fabinho chipping the ball in, and clinical finish from Mane. It was such a good goal that during a break in play, I went back to look at it again. When I rejoined the live action, the score had changed, and the momentum we generated vanished. It looked like a 1-1 snoozefest as the second half went on, when we kept taking ambitious pot shots from outside the box. Jürgen came up with the goods and once again, made a sub that worked. Once we regained the lead, it was a stroll in the park after that.
For all the manc propaganda in the media, that it's our "first win over them in 4 years", it's actually our first win over them since...July 28 in Detroit. People told us then the win didn't matter, and probably still will, instead it was an indication (as pre-season form often is) of not just how this game would go but how the season itself would play out, with us kicking on, and third season syndrome setting in over there. With 7 goals against them in 2 games, now we go into February looking for the hat trick. So from being w/o in the title race by every pundit in the game, as recently as the beginning of this month, we have the chance to go 4 points clear next weekend.
The talk before this game, was a calculator check on how many trophies Jürgen has won compared to them, but we've come a long way from celebrating the nicking of a 2-2 draw against West Brom three years ago, and even further since having to come from 2 goals down to nick a point at home to Hull in 2008. He isn't under "pressure" from us to win us a trophy, we know he will, it's just a question of when. We've needed the patience of job to endure the past 28 years, so we'll wait as long as he needs, to bring us back to where we belong.
Logged