A proper professional performance from start to finish. When I saw the players stepping out onto the pitch, I could sense they meant business. No laughing or fraternising with the opponent, just sheer concentration and a serious look on their collective faces. Brilliant
Then we just constructively dismantled Palace, no histrionics, no wreckless Keegan-esque bollocks, just a thoroughly ruthless job. We set out as a 4-4-2, but like late last year Dzeko was dropping deep to fortify the midfield thus snuffing out any chance we were ever going to be overrun. Even Pulis in a later interview admitted that we seemed different and he partially put it down to the Liverpool result earlier which I suppose was part of the reason, but we've been here before when we've had an opportunity to make hay and fucked it up, but today it was just different. This is how we should have played against Liverpool, we should have kept it tight and compact and made our superiority count as the game wore on.
Yaya was fucking superb and Aguero looked sharp. We took no silly risks and just did what we needed to to get 3 points and I couldn't ask for any more. Now on to Souness! WTF was he on about? One minute he's praising Maureen for a tactical masterclass in containing the Dippers and hitting them on the break late in each half to beat them, but then he criticises us for not recklessly going for a cricket score when the 3 points is what mattered!
If we'd have done so and ended up drawing or losing, he'd have slaughtered Pellegrini and the team for not being pragmatic enough to see out the win. Quinn called it right when he said we'd put on a professional display and he's correct. A few more of these earlier in the season wouldn't have gone a miss either. The ball is in our hands, please, please, please let's not drop it again.
