Alvaro Negredo, 65th Minute. 1-0.

It would be a farce to say that Manchester City’s performances this season have been anything less than interesting. Three weeks ago we saw a crisp team playing tidy passing, exploring great overlap attacks that ended up scoring four goals. Last week, we saw a team lost defensively that was disjointed defensively. This week, we saw a mix of both – City at times were beautiful in their passing, but were pressed well by Hull defensively and thus couldn’t get going. Amidst the negativity, criticism, and even praise, let’s look at this week’s number two goal – Alvaro Negredo’s fantastic header.

Like Dzeko last week and the goals of their first match against Newcastle, Sergio Aguero has gone from a striker looking only for passes, to a link-up player involved in almost all of City’s attacking play. This time, instead of linking up with Dzeko, it’s his compatriot Pablo Zabaleta. Yaya Toure, here, dropped nearly into City’s defense to get the ball, but then feeds it up to David Silva in the midfield. This link is so crucial for City as both of these players command defenders. Amidst that, watch Aguero’s positioning. He drops nearly to the center line, but once the pass follows up to Silva, Aguero senses the play and starts to make a run. His movement is so crucial as he can draw defenders, and give somebody like Negredo room to roam in midfield. Here, both Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore are starting to track him.

Here, the play has advanced further. Note the position of Aguero, following the play. Silva feeds the ball onto Jesus Navas here, who has positioned himself perfectly to his attributes. He can run up the right hand side and attack himself, or continue to find the open space. Look at the triangles City have created between themselves with this positioning. This is something out of training for the likes of these individuals. Zabaleta has sensed an overlap, Silva pushed the ball forward, and Aguero has centered himself to create a shot. There’s a multitude of combinations we could explore – but we also see Hull’s out of position. Huddlestone and Livermore are behind the play. Negredo, the striker that he is, calmly begins to start his run in the space between the defenders. Aguero has drawn one centerback away, and there is a clear path into the box.

Navas made the right decision of feeding Aguero, who then makes the great decision of feeding Zabaleta. This play is why City’s team is worth so much, and can turn seemingly horrible games into three points so easily. The passing here is all one touch passing – and each one is crisp, clean, and finds their target with ease. With Navas behind him, Zabaleta can fully go for the overlap, and his compatriot Aguero gets the ball to him. Negredo continues his run into this box, and in all honesty this goal is practically already scored.

The ball from Zabaleta comes into Negredo who has already slotted into the space in between the centerbacks, and all he has to do is convert the corner into a great cross goal header – which appears to be his trademark (were it not for a linesmen error, it would be three in three games).

Manchester city may not have been the most consistent of teams so far this season, but many of their faults have come from defensive mishaps. They have scored eight goals so far, the most in the league. Their crisp passing and good movement is often the reason why, and this goal is no different. Perfect positioning, tidy passes, and perfect header. If City can find this form for the rest of the season, there’s no reason this campaign can’t be their best in years.