Ederson has risen to the challenge set for him by Man City supporters

It's hard to imagine at this stage now Manchester City are in the semi-finals of two competitions, are favourites to clinch the Premier League again and haven't tasted defeat in 15 matches but 2023 didn't start all too well.

It's hardly surprising in hindsight given so many players took time to get back to their best following an emotionally and physically draining World Cup, but City struggled to find any sort of rhythm or consistency once domestic football resumed. Just when it seemed a run was about to get going, there would be a frustrating draw or an unexpected defeat. It's only in the current unbeaten run, which began on February 12, that the Blues have managed to win more than three games in a row.

Plenty of players came in for criticism during that fallow period but none more so than Ederson, who surprisingly found plenty of supporters turning against him. It wasn't just the odd contrarian deliberately trying to stand out with their unique opinions, either, as a sizeable portion of supporters began to issue concerns with the goalkeeper.

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A lot of the flak was based around a stat that Ederson had conceded the first shot on target he had faced in four consecutive games. While that's obviously not ideal, it did ignore the context of those goals (a penalty, a back-post tap-in, and two one-on-ones) and appeared to be a panicked overreaction as City continued to flounder. As though the Brazilian was being offered up as the scapegoat.

There was more credence to the point that Ederson didn't have the best save percentage, especially when compared to rival goalkeepers, but it's long been established that there is much more to his game than saves. City's No.31 has been