And now you’re gonna believe us…

When you beat City 2-0 and the scoreline massively flatters THEM, you know you’ve had a good day. We’ve been battling City for the best part of a decade now and both teams have suffered heavy defeats at the hands of the other in that time but I don’t think there’s ever been a more one sided game between the sides since the Klopp-Pep era began. Sure there’s been heavier score lines but it’s been us blowing them away and scoring four in the opening 20 minutes as we saw in the early Klopp days, or them sticking 5 past us when Mane was sent off in the first half. I don’t recall a game between us not being particularly competitive but that’s what we saw today.

We’ve become known as a second half team but I was so glad to see us come flying out at City today. We didn’t need to sit off and try and work out their weaknesses, they’ve been there for all to see in their recent games and for the first time in the Pep era, they’re reeling and their season is in a tailspin. Go right at them and see how they handle it. That’s what we did and quite simply, they couldn’t handle us. The press, the aggression, the speed of our play… we had them in panic mode. We could and probably should have been out of sight in that opening twenty minutes.

It’s strange to see City in utter disarray. We’ve seen ourselves go through it a couple of times in the Klopp era, where the wheels have completely come off and you can’t see where the next win is coming from. City have always seemed impervious to that in Pep’s time at the club but my god are they going through it now and I’m not sure Pep knows how to fix it. This is new ground for Pep, even with all his experience. The thing is, as we know only too well, you don’t just turn a crisis in form like they’re currently experiencing overnight and go on a 10 game winning streak. People keep saying that they’re capable of that but not in this state they’re not. It’ll take a couple of hard fought wins/draws to give them a little bit of belief back and then try and build from there. They’re going to drop more points this season though, that much is for sure and to that end, I honestly believe that 11 points behind in their current situation is insurmountable and they’re now out of this title race. What an incredible statement to be making about City on the 1st day of December!!!

To the game then and the opening 20 minutes we were electric, reminiscent of the peak Klopp years where teams just couldn’t live with our press and intensity and we’d simply blow them away in the opening half hour of games and we could have done just that today. When the opening goal did come however, it was world class. The initial long ball from Trent was fantastic but the pass from Salah to Gakpo at the far post was truly world class, eye of the needle stuff that any playmaker in world football would have been proud of. It was also Gakpo’s 6th goal in 7 games, as his fine form continues and he was causing Kyle Walker all kinds of problems throughout the game. It was no less than we deserved though and we really should have been further ahead. Van Dijk could have had a hat trick on the day and certainly should have found himself on the scoresheet at least once as he squandered a number of good headed opportunities from corners.

Once we took the lead however, we sat back somewhat and allowed City back into the game. I mentioned on the match thread at halftime that normally I don’t have an issue with maintaining a defensive shape and playing on the counter once we have a lead but I do think it was a mistake against City. Breaking down a team’s defence is City’s bread and butter and we allowed them to gain a foothold in the game, whereas they were all over the place when we were going hard at them. Having said that, they hadn’t managed a single effort on goal by halftime, with Kelleher a virtual spectator in our goal.

Second half was a bit more competitive as you’d expect but still City struggled to create any clear opportunities. The introduction of the lively Doku made them a little more dangerous but I thought Trent defended excellently throughout, putting in his best display of the season in my opinion and Gomez also did his bit, showing no signs of ring rust despite his limited minutes this season, as we resolutely defended our penalty box.

At the other end we continued to squander opportunities, Salah in particular missing a gilt edged chance when clean through, only to see his effort fly over the bar. Darwin was predictably offside for most of the time he was on the pitch, however he played a big part in the build up to the penalty. His desire to win the ball back and refusal to give it up allowed Diaz to break clear and he showed similar tenacity to ride the first attempted foul on him, only to be upended by the keeper for as easy a penalty call as the ref will ever have to make. Salah stepped up and despite missing one against Madrid midweek, he cooly slotted home to give us the killer second goal we’d so badly needed. In fact, I think it was the first really good penalty I’ve ever seen Salah take, expertly finding the bottom corner and leaving the keeper no chance, despite him going the right way.

After the second goal went in, City basically gave up and it became a procession. The boys were knocking it about in style, the ‘Ole’s’ from the crowd before a tongue in cheek chant of ‘Sacked in the morning’ rang around the ground. I bet Pep’s never heard that particular song aimed at him before and with that, an almost perfect afternoon was rounded up. I say almost perfect because 2-0 really didn’t tell the full story of just how dominant we were in the game but I’m just being greedy now.

What I’m loving about this current squad is our strength in depth and competition for places. For years I bemoaned the drop off in quality from first choice to squad players and we always had too many ‘undroppables’ in the team for my liking, purely because there was nobody else of the standard to replace them but that’s far from the case now and we’re reaping the benefits of it. It’s no coincidence in my opinion that we see Trent put in his best display of the season in the week his understudy was being lauded for his performance against Madrid. Likewise the form of Diaz and Gakpo, with both players knowing there’s a top class operator in their position who will move ahead of them should there be a drop in form. Robbo has looked more like his old self in the last couple of games and it was great to see Harvey return from injury, which will improve our midfield depth and put more pressure to perform on Szoboszlai in particular.

I don’t want to tempt fate or get too far ahead of myself but the title really is ours to lose now. Arsenal have rediscovered their form since Odegaard’s return and it wasn’t lost on me that our 9 point lead would have become 6 had we lost yesterday and suddenly our lead would be a little less comfortable and the Forest game served as a timely reminder that no game can be taken for granted in the PL but barring an injury crisis, we just don’t look like dropping too many points this season and we have the characters and experience in the dressing room to manage the psychological pressures of becoming title favourites.

What a week then. Comfortable victories over both the reigning European and Premier League champions has put us in a great position both domestically and in Europe. Arne Slot quietly turning doubters into believers in less than 6 months. Who’d have thought it eh? Walk on!!