A fine win, exactly the win you want to see in a team bedding into the season. Particularly swashbuckling and free-flowing goalfest? no. But we beat a team suffering only its 2nd defeat of 2025. Playing against 10 men is a pretty thankless task (City must win! cant believe they didnt score 5! etc.), so winning with complete control and playing the game at our pace, with zero threat, was a great result.
With a same XI as the Derby, it might have been easy to draw player to player comparisons, but i think the Napoli red card changed things a bit too much to be able to do that. It did look like we had a bit of a game on our hands, Napoli having a good period up to the red card (which was a bit of a counter from City, beautiful ball from Foden). We definitely moved the ball quicker, even if Napoli's very staunch and organised defence made finding a way through difficult.
I though Rodri played better than against United, Doku and Foden continued to impress, as did Khusanov. Gvardiol is finding his match legs again. Donnarumma had very little to do. Reijnders is still finding things a bit tough in that advanced, or breaking from midfield, role. He'll be ok but we might have to be patient.
great night, good crowd, good result, form building, fitness building. Just a generally positive night all round.
