Zabaleta has been a fantastic servant for City since 2008 when he joined. When I see players kissing the badge it normally fills me with huge quantities of bile as it's invariably a trick used to ingratiate a player with the fans. However with Zaba you don't get that, he clearly feels extremely attached to the club, its fans, and the city and it comes across as a genuine action.
I actually think Zaba was ok last night, but nothing more. He made mistakes but he contributed well to the team performance, and took his goal really well. He's had better performances for us in the past, and he'll have better games in the future too, but you just can't knock his commitment or passion. When the money started to pour into the club I was concerned that Zaba would be left behind, that he wouldn't be of the required standard for where we wanted to go, but he took his game to another level, improved across the board, and has proven himself to be an excellent team player.
