KOMPANY MAN HITS HEIGHTS

City captain strikes a screamer to put Pep’s boys on road to title

Captain. Leader, Legend. Look, that other gentleman has stopped playing and relinquished it now, so his triple crown is vacant. and who deserves it more than Vincent Kompany?

He was meant to have been phased out long ago. He wasn’t pep Guardiola’s type, remember. He wanted defenders like midfield players, not old-fashioned warrior centre halves.

plus, there were the injuries. in Guardiola’s first season here. Kompany’s struggles were so bad the manager didn’t even include him in his thinking.

if he was available, if he could play, it was a bonus.

Yet here he is, three years into Guardiola’s revolution, scoring the goal that leaves Manchester City on course for the most competitively fought title in history. ninety eight points. that is what they will need, in all likelihood, to win it.

they would have fallen short without Kompany and a goal that will be remembered, replayed and celebrated decades from now. a spectacular goal, not the type traditionally scored by players in Kompany’s position. this was his ‘aguerooo’ moment.

think of a central defender scoring and the image is of a header from a set-piece. Kompany has scored plenty like that in his time, plenty of standard contributions for a player with his skill-set.

this was different. this was paul Breitner 1974 World Cup different. this was a goal defenders dream of scoring.

Kompany collected the ball around 35 yards from Leicester’s goal. it doesn’t matter who from. it was a square pass, one of the million City make as they move and shape the play around the opposition box. Kompany was expected to move it on, too.

Leicester dropped off a little, let him have it. He’s not going to shoot from there, is he? and if he is, well good luck with that. this is a player that had never scored a goal from outside the penalty area in his entire premier League career. What’s the worst that could happen? We’ll take them all day.

So Kompany advanced maybe five yards and — pow! the ball left his right foot like a tracer missile, straight into Kasper Schmeichel’s top corner.

it was Kompany’s first goal since april 7, 2018 and if he never scores one again, nobody around these parts will mind. there was already y an argument that Kompany might be among City’s greatest players from any era. this is the type of f goal that gets statues cast.

Leicester had gone further into the match without conceding g than any league team to visit the Etihad this season. they were organised and determined and City were frustrated. they were forcing Leicester deeper and deeper in search of the goal that would wrench the title advantage from Liverpool, but the tension in n the stadium was growing.

ilkay Gundogan came close with h a shot, Schmeichel made a fine save from Sergio aguero — then Leicester broke and James Maddison could have scored, or at least slipped in Marc albrighton who was in a superior position.

Was this going to be the night a title duellist blinked? and then — we’ve got Kompany. there were 20 minutes remaining when he scored. it was far from comfortable from there and Leicester substitute Kelechi iheanacho missed a good late chance, but City held on. Win at Brighton and the title is theirs. that won’t be easy, either. nothing is, when it’s like this.

Leicester are a good team, much restored under Brendan Rodgers after the disaffection of Claude puel’s brief era, and they have lately been very capable of causing City problems. add to that the pressure of needing i to win every game and this was probably the toughest fixture either of the potential title w winners had to get through — far m more problematic than visiting Manchester United, given the form of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team.

So it proved. Manchester City were goalless at half-time at Old trafford, and against Burnley, too, but this felt different. Leicester are dangerous on the counterattack, so there was always the hint of vulnerability and City couldn’t find a way through.

Rodgers is a smart coach, too. He lay traps, dropping off when Ederson had the ball and letting City’s defenders distribute.

the goalkeeper probably has the best feet of any of City’s back line, but his balls into midfield were negated this way.

Sure enough, there was frustration in the City ranks as the minutes slipped away. they wanted more from referee Mike Dean — in particular they wanted Schmeichel

sanctioned for time-wasting. The announcement of a single minute in first-half injury time brought a furious reaction from the locals.

It was hard to argue with the first two names in the book, mind — both City players. David Silva was shown a yellow card for a cynical challenge on Youri Tielemans, Kompany for a spectacular foul on James Maddison.

Kompany rose to the occasion defensively elsewhere, with a quite magnificent full- stretch block to charge down an eighth-minute shot from Albrighton. It was a night for big gestures of commitment.

Bernardo Silva made plenty. Raheem Sterling is the Footballer of the Year, but in the final weeks of the season Silva’s form has, if anything, been more influential.

His battle with Ben Chilwell along the flank was the most intriguing of the night and credit to the England man that he resisted a proper chasing.

On occasions, though, Silva was sublime, cutting in and out, beating one, two, three men — going back and beating the odd one again. He looked the City player most likely to make something happen, even if their best chance of the first half came from a set piece.

It was a corner from the left, met by Aguero with a glancing header and for a split second it seemed as if goalline technology would come to City’s rescue, as at Turf Moor.

The ball had struck the bar before it dropped and Schmeichel clawed it clear. To the naked eye, it looked as if it had crossed. No signal for Dean, though, and replays showed no goal.

The title is not won yet, whatever the jubilant fans may think, as Brighton’s dogged performance at Arsenal showed heart.

City will still have to do it the hard way come Sunday. What is unquestionable, whatever happens, is that this is a truly great team. The first since Preston in the 19th century to beat every league opponent at least once in consecutive seasons.

It was a 12-team league back then, mind, and no crossbars. It’s fair to say the game has changed — and been changed, too.