This isn’t all down to Pep... we need to talk about Kevin ANDY
RIGHT. This is not just about Pep. Not just about a footballing gospel that is winning disciples by the dozen by the day.
This – this flawless, five-week, first date with English football – is not just about a perfectionist who salutes each and every goal with a salvo at one of his own.
This – this smile-widening start to what will unfold as a spellbinding season – is not just about a leader as committed to principles as he is to points.
This is about some seriously talented footballers.
After all, you can lead a man to total football . . . you can’t make him play it. He has to be able to. Step forward Kevin de Bruyne. He was a class act before Pep arrived. He was a class act in Germany. Jose Mourinho was blind to it, but he was a class act before that.
And the dreamy, simple, sumptuous pass that served a first Manchester City goal to Ilkay Gundogan’sdogans table was not made by Pep.
It was made by a player with the vision, the vibrancyy and verve to vie with football’s very best.
There was the goal, the old under-the-walll trick loved by the impudent. dent.
There were the he b link- of- an- eye e breakaways,, De Bruyne the gear- changing cog for the whirring wheels of young guns Raheem Sterling and Ke l e c h i Iheanacho.
There were the darts, dancing feett and dummies.
Somehow, though,gh, the pass for Gundoganogan – covering only a few yards and obvious on replay – summed up as accomplished complished an individual contributiontribution as a coach could wish for.
Not erraticallyy virtuoso in a way any he has worked with previously. De Bruyne is that good. Don’t forget, City’s slump last season coincided with the injured De Bruyne’s 12-match absence. No Sergio Aguero here, no problem. No David Silva, no problem. De Bruyne morphed into a ghostly and glorious amalgam of the two. Eddie Howe’s decision to start Jack Wilshere – way off the pace – did not help Bournemouth’s cause, and there will clearly be more resistant, more challenging visitors to a joyous Etihad. But City’s attacking combinations – without Aguero and Silva – were still b re a t h t a k i n g ly impressive. Guardiola will not fret too long and hard about Nol i t o’s impending suspension, that is for sure. It is the strength in depth that – even with clocks still clinging to summer time – will start the debate. You’ve probably already heard it. Is this the type of team that can go unbeaten the whole season? The answer is almost certainly not. The sort of comedy sketches that were meant to pass for cool defending against Bournemouth wi l l probably see to that one day. But there is nothing comic going the other way. Just the smile of a young man in the form of his life. This is not just about Pep, this thrill-ride of a City start. This is as much about Kevin.
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