Manchester City historically finish seasons very strongly – and Gary Neville has now picked out one moment where Pep Guardiola’s side started to feel ‘ominous’.
City beat Crystal Palace 4-2 on Saturday, following up the 4-1 win over Aston Villa in midweek.
Pep‘s side are still unbeaten this calendar year, and have been really going through the gears recently.
The recent 0-0 draw with Arsenal was a bit of an exception. That said, the Gunners came to the Etihad and made life really difficult, and they are clearly a great side that could potentially push City all the way.
But City do just look to be improving game by game now, and there is a feeling for many of them being ‘ominous’.
People just expect City to blow teams away at this stage of the season and pick up three points every game.
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville spoke about City after yesterday’s 2-2 draw between Manchester United and Liverpool, and shared the moment he felt Pep’s side became ominous…
Gary Neville says Oscar Bobb’s late goal against Newcastle in January is when he felt Manchester City became an ‘ominous’ threat
If City manage to win a fourth straight Premier League title come the end for the season, it is going to be fascinating to reflect back on where it was won.
Because it is surely going to be a very close run thing. If City do triumph it could well only be by a point of two, or maybe even on goal difference.
There have been some very key moments this season.
And perhaps one of the biggest in City’s season was when Oscar Bobb scored in injury-time in the game against Newcastle United back in January.
City had trailed in that game, but the introduction of Kevin De Bruyne turned it on its head.
The Belgian, just back from injury, came on as a substitute and got City back level at 2-2. In injury-time, he then laid on a perfect assist for Bobb to score a fantastic goal.
Neville said on the Gary Neville podcast last night: “The first time I felt ominous was when Oscar Bobb scored that goal away at St. James’ Park. I don’t know when that was, about two or three months ago? You just thought ‘Ooooooo’, You know that little feeling that you have and you think ‘Not them!’, that was the first time I got that ominous feeling. They’re on a special run.”
A huge moment in City’s season
Bobb scoring that goal against Newcastle was undoubtedly a major moment in Manchester City’s season so far.
First and foremost, it got City two more potentially crucial points on the board.
But it was also the psychological boost it would have provided. To get a win over a strong Newcastle side, having come from behind, will have done wonders for the squad.
There was also the narrative of De Bruyne coming back and having such an amazing impact. His goal and assist that day certainly had a lot of people feeling ‘ominous’ about City ahead of the second half of the season.