The highest praise I can heap on that performance: Kev and Aguero didn’t play that well.
Wait, don’t respond with abuse just yet, hear me out.
Kevin had an off night, Aguero was not on it for most of the match, and David was on the bench. Last year that would have been a death nail—we would have lost this match.
But this year, with all of that being true, Kev got an assist, Aguero broke the scoring record, David got a rest, and we won away from home to likely the second best team in a Europe and qualified for the next round with two games to spare. We are so unified, so deep on the bench, so exciting to watch, so solid at the back, and have so much talent across the pitch that two or three “key” players can be out or off on the night and we can still beat quality opposition. And beat them well.
This is, by far, the best squad we have ever had (I hope not that we will ever have... frightening thought that it could get better) and is something truly special.
Raheem is a man possessed, Leroy is still finding his feet (think about that), Bernardo is getting used to the system, John and Nico are out scoring Palace together, Fernandinho is locking down the midfield, Gabby is having a chance to develop in to a premier striker, Fabian is stepping up and becoming one of the best left backs in the world (who would have thought that two years ago), Ederson has become a top five keeper in Europe, David is quietly having a dominant season, Kevin looks like one of the best central midfielders of all time, and everywhere else on the pitch looks like light blue roses.
It has never been a better time to be a blue.
