I enjoyed the match thoroughly from first kick to last and my enjoyment was increased massively by the sound of some genuine football fans instead of that dreadful canned noise piped through. And our lads put on a real show for the crowd dominating the match for the whole 90 minutes, playing some excellent football with Foden and Mahrez giving superb displays. The Spurs fans must feel an awful sense of anti-climax because they were involved in a Wembley final, a real football occasion, and they never got into the game. But I'm not entertaining any of this rubbish that they were useless or embarrassing - they never got into the game because our lads never let them in. Why do so many of our own fans fail to see that we have - at the very least - one of the best teams ever and yet only seem to win trophies because we play teams which are no good? We won deservedly yesterday because Spurs were not - and are not on other days - anywhere near as good as our lads.
I'm always more critical of City, & less likely to be impressed during a match because of the pressure to win. Everything is amplified. A stray pass. A silly foul in a dangerous area. A foul risking a red. Missed chances, even if it's as a result of a blatantly good save. Wanting City to win so badly does this to me.
However, last week I watched a rerun of the 2011/2012 El Classico in Madrid with Barca sporting Xavi, Messi, Iniesta, Sanchez, Villa, Alves, Puyol etc.... I could immediately see Pep's Barca DNA in the way we played. When I applied my expected City levels of excellence to that legendary Barca team, I'd say this City team is easily on a par, if not better (Notwithstanding Messi).
It's a big claim, but I think we all tend to underate City, always fearing the worse, which is understandable. But looking back at the match without pressure, we completely outplayed Spuds in the first half, & them upping the tempo in the second half, merely gave us more space to play in & allowed us to counter attack at pace.
I wondered how we'd ever replace Yaya, Kompany, Silva, Aguero & Fernandinho. Yesterday's win proved how. Not so much with better, but with different & just as special in their own way. We're better than we give ourselves credit for.