WE’RE GONNA VIN THE LEAGUE

Skipper’s stunner puts Blues on brink

VINCENT KOMPANY produced a stunning strike as Manchester

City put one hand on the Premier League trophy.

The skipper rocketed an unstoppable 28-yard strike to seal the win that took City back above title rivals Liverpool at the top of the

IT was a bolt from the man who bleeds sky blue, a leader of his club long before Pep arrived.

It was a bolt from an inspirational captain that means Manchester City are a win at Brighton away from a second successive Premier League title.

When momentum seemed to be moving conclusively towards Liverpool, when the champions were struggling to string their incisively brilliant football together, up stepped the skipper.

And with a strike that will, in terms of sweetness and significance, be unrivalled this season, Vincent Kompany has put his team on the brink of glory and the second leg of a possible domestic treble.

It was a strike that won a contest in which the hosts were stricken with nerves.

No matter how accomplished you are, no matter how much title-winning experience you can draw on, pressure tells. And it told here.

A week’s rest might have loosened limbs but the fraught, must-win scenario froze some minds.

That is the only explanation for the sort of early manoeuvres that saw Kyle Walker and Phil Foden trying their luck from deeply speculative areas, much to the annoyance of Guardiola.

The Spaniard cut an even more intense figure than normal , his right foot repeatedly scraping at the floor like a horse ready to bolt.

Time after time, Guardiola turned, arms outstretched, to look at his backroom staff in exasperation. The absences of Kevin De Bruyne and Fernandinho were keenly felt as Foden could not get a foothold in proceedings and Ilkay Gundogan struggled with the dynamism of Leicester’s midfield, one of whose number, Ricardo Pereira, cut through with alarming ease, only to see his shot desperately blocked by Kompany.

Talking of desperation, it was not long before the tactical foul was rolled out, David Silva booked for a copybook example on Youri Tielemans.

A measure of the home team’s struggles, whether with form or nerves, was that the first scare for Leicester came after the half-hour mark and that was from a standard set- piece as Sergio Aguero headed a corner-kick against the crossbar and Kasper Schmeichel’s wonderful glove.

And as the crowd’s anxiety became increasingly audible, we had the sight of Kompany, during one lull in play, gesturing to all sides of the stadium to keep calm.

That soon transpired to be pretty ironic as Kompany’s upending of James Maddison, never one unafraid to make a meal of things, produced the