I just want to emphasise something about the two passes. As soon as Gabriel Jesus goes into the tussle for the ball he knows exactly what he's going to do with it if he wins it. That is, he's seen Raheem lurking already (because he couldn't possibly have looked while he's scrapping, obviously) and he knows that he's got to make space for himself to play that perfect angled ball if he gets it. So that had everything – balls, to win the tackle, vision to know the best thing to do with it, and huge skill to execute it cleanly. For a lad of that age, that is no ordinary thing.
But Silva's is, if anything, a touch more sublime. Sané makes the sign and clearly signals to him where he's going to be and what he wants Silva to do. All fine and dandy, but Spanish Dave knows that whatever's obvious to him is equally obvious to the Palace defenders. So fine, he's got the message, but he's looking mostly to the right, to someone who is in fact free there (can't remember who) as he advances those ten yards. Only very briefly and discreetly does he check Sané's progress. He brilliantly decoys the Palace defence's attention away from Sané, or at the very least splits it, holds the ball exactly, to the split second, long enough, and then delivers a perfectly weighted pass which is slowing as Sané comes on to it, making his job all the easier.
I don't know if I'm alone in this – maybe I am – but my feeling over these last two games, Spurs and this, is that we've seen flashes of what this team can be, and should be, about twelve months up the road. That's why patience is vital. This season may be a washout, I'd be very disappointed if we didn't get top four, for sure, but I'm utterly certain that it is all going to come together, in an explosive way, within the next season or so. You look at these kids – Sterling, Sané, Jesus – a still young De Bruyne, Silva and Aguero who've still got tons of mileage in them; then you look at that under-18 team. It's frightening, really. There's work to be done on that defence, no question about it, and the keeper situation is worrying. If Pep's got any pull at all, those things will be fixed. Good times...
