Kevin de Bruyne's decision to shrug off angry Arsenal fans aiming missles at him spoke volumes about the Belgian's attitude following his substitution.
The Belgian midfielder starred during Manchester City's crucial win over the Gunners on Wednesday night. He scored his side's opening goal with a delicious lob of Aaron Ramsdale, before laying on the assist for Erling Haaland 's win-sealing strike late in the second-half.
De Bruyne was substituted with three minutes remaining, as boss Pep Guardiola moved to make sure of his side's victory. Kelvin Phillips came on in his place, with De Bruyne heading for the far sideline when he saw his number go up on the fourth official's board.
That meant he had to walk the long way round to get to the dugouts, where he would watch the closing stages. That decision also saw him go past a particularly passionate section of Arsenal fans.
And, frustrated at their side's defeat, those supporters began launching water bottles at De Bruyne in disgusting scenes. The Belgian did not appear to be hit by the missiles and was seen laughing towards the culprits.
De Bruyne's open contempt for those misbehaving Arsenal fans signalled that he knew how big a win it was for his side. City are now top of the Premier League table, with Guardiola singling out De Bruyne for praise.
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"I’m not going to discuss how important Kevin is for us but sometimes with the shape of Tottenham, so deep, 5-4-1, playing in the pockets he’d struggle a little bit, and I decided to put two strikers for a bit more presence in the box," he told Amazon Prime.
"That’s about tactics, it’s not about form or I don’t like Kevin de Bruyne, it’s just sometimes I saw the opponent, I saw do I want more presence in the box to score more goals? That’s the reason why. And also there is a lot of games, everyone has to play.
"They have one game in hand so I still consider they are leaders, we could be eight, nine, 10 points behind two or three weeks ago and now we are there so it’s important, but there are many games to play.
"Many things are going to happen and we’re not going to win all the games, just be patient, recover well, go to Nottingham, [take it] game by game. Second half was more like we are. We let them play the build up, our shape, we let them play."
City travel to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, with De Bruyne again likely to feature at the City Ground. By that time, they may be second, with Arsenal playing their next game a few hours before City are back in action.
