What a game, it had absolutely everything. Fantastic play, mistakes, a bit of luck, immense effort, great atmosphere and the usual shit show by Taylor and var.
That was a game we HAD to win and we did it. We could make all the noises we liked pre game about a draw not being a bad result but trust me it would have been. Arsenal would have been given a huge psychological boost if they would have left the Etihad still six points clear. It would have meant everything was still in their own hands and after that monumental effort out there our players would have felt deflated. Simple as that. I still think we have to win all our games because i think they will win all theirs. The return of Eze and Odegaard makes them a better team with more of a goal threat. In spite of them losing this game i think the manner in which they played will actually give them a lift. Not many teams will stop them if they replicate that form.
Back to the game. We will obviously never know now but if Donnarumma hadn't made that horrendous fuck up just ninety seconds after we scored i think we might have won the game more comfortably. We were on top, had scored and i looked at their players as they walked back to kick off and the belief was already draining out of them. Then suddenly from nothing they're back in the game and it understandably took the wind out of our sails for a bit.
The whole team played well i thought aside from Semenyo who i thought was disappointing. His first touch was awful, he rarely got his crosses in and i have absolutely no idea what he had on his feet because he looked like a kid learning to ice skate for the first time on occasion. He was played into two great positions and fluffed his lines both times.
Haaland, O'Reilly, Rodri and above all Bernardo were immense. What a performance by the little man, he was absolutely everywhere, a real captain's performance, leading by example with an insane spirit not to be beaten. How do you replace what he brings to the team? We are really going to miss him, i wish he'd do one more year to complete the ten.
On to Taylor and var. I said it was a shit show but perhaps that was a bit unkind. On the whole i thought he reffed it quite well while still favouring Arsenal. How he didn't give a foul when Gabriel ripped the shirt off Haalands back is beyond me. He should have been booked for that too and he let that thug get away with far too much. Irrespective of whether the headbutt was a sending off ( I think it was, Haaland was punished for being too honest and not going down ) he should have easily accumulated two yellows in the game and walked anyway.
All in all a great day, a game worthy of the two top teams in the division. It's games like this that remind you of why you fell in love with football, it had everything and the icing on the cake was we got the win. Superb.