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#3 Kyle Walker returns home
Today’s game was an incredibly special one for Kyle Walker. Not only was it his 100th PL appearance for Manchester City, but he also got to return to his boyhood club, Sheffield United. This is the team the right-back grew up supporting; he was even a ball boy for them at one point. To make matters more special for him, he’d mark his return home with his first-ever away league goal for City.
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The Sheffield-born lad put on a fine performance for his team, completing 75 passes, winning 8 duels, making 3 clearances, making 2 tackles, completing 2 dribbles and scoring the game’s winning goal.
#2 Rhian Brewster feeds off scraps
After it was made clear that he had no future at Anfield, Rhian Brewster made the bold choice to move to Sheffield United. Instead of rotting in the reserves at Liverpool, Brewster chose to come out of his comfort zone and play for a team not renowned for their attacking play.
Chris Wilder is a man that prides himself on defensive organization, direct football and overlapping CBs. His strikers rarely score a lot of goals as their style of play doesn’t focus on creating chances. That’s why today, in his first home start for his new club, the 20-year-old had to feed off scraps. Across the game, the youngster could only attempt 1 shot on goal whilst touching the ball a measly 17 times.
#1 First-choice CB pairing
For the first time this season, Pep Guardiola was able to play his two best centre-backs from the start. Aymeric Laporte & Ruben Dias has been a pairing years in the making as City have given the Frenchman a number of different partners. The £65.2m signing of Dias means that Pep has now spent a staggering £408m on defenders since becoming Man City manager.
Today, the new signing proved he was worth his eye-watering price tag. Between them, the duo made 5 clearances, 2 tackles, 5 interceptions and win 10 duels against a very direct Sheffield United team. Above all, the partnership would guide the former Champions to only their second clean sheet of the league campaign.
