Kevin De Bruyne has jokingly thanked on Instagram the bitter Arsenal fans who threw bottles at him during Manchester City's statement 3-1 win at the Emirates.
The Belgian midfielder, 31, was the orchestrator behind City's seismic victory on Wednesday to move them top of the Premier League table, scoring his side's opening goal and registering an assist for Erling Haaland's strike which wrapped up the win. De Bruyne didn't just fend off his opponents either, as the City star had multiple objects thrown at him while he walked around the pitch after being substituted in the closing stages.
A defiant De Bruyne, who was also involved in a brief altercation with Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, was seen laughing in the face of angry home fans and maintained his humorous perspective after the match. "Beer anyone?" the 31-year-old asked on Instagram alongside two photos of the incident - which pundits described as "disgusting" - before adding: "Thanks!"
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Fortunately for De Bruyne and his teammates, they could laugh all the way back to Manchester with three points in the bag. Although Arteta's Arsenal still have a game in hand, reigning champions City lead the race on goal difference after an ominous display for the rest of the Premier League.
Not at their free-flowing best, Pep Guardiola's men dug in with a gritty performance and trusted their quality to eventually pay off. That was exactly how the game went, too, with City gaining an early advantage through De Bruyne's fortuitous effort, punishing Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu for a short back-pass.
The hosts soon equalised, with Bukayo Saka showing ice-cold nerves to dispatch a hotly-debated penalty, but failed to build on their momentum and errors late in the second half allowed City to capitalise through Jack Grealish and Haaland. Guardiola himself admitted that his side weren't at their best in the first 45 minutes but praised their 'aggressiveness' to win the contest.
Asked what was wrong with the first half from his perspective, the City boss told Prime Video Sport: "My tactics because I decided something new and it was horrible. Second half was more like we are. We let them play the build-up, our shape, we let them play. When you let them play with Jorginho, [Granit] Xhaka, Alex [Zinchenko], they found the players in behind, [Martin] Odegaard, the runners outside up top.
"In the second half we adjusted and it was good, go in more aggressive to Odegaard and we controlled more of the ball, we played more, we played more, and Erling helped us a lot because we had to use more long balls and used his power to keep the ball.
"In the first half they had one more man in the middle, it was hard to control it and that's why we suffered. but in the second half we were there."
