Two Norwich moments show Man City's 'number one' star scrapping for Kompany and Aguero farewell

Manchester City’s masterful second-half showing in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Norwich City brought some very high praise for their most experienced campaigner.

Raheem Sterling might have collected the man-of-the-match award on the back of a hat-trick but, in the Sky Sports studio, Jamie Redknapp was marvelling at a master of his craft.

“The number one defensive midfielder the league has ever seen,” was the former Liverpool, Tottenham and England player’s emphatic verdict on Fernandinho.

As Twitter users furiously put forward the cases of Claude Makelele, Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira among others, it dawned that such labels are only applied when you are thought to be close to being in the same company as that trio. A former player.

Fernandinho will be out of contract and 37 at the end of this season. He now serves as back-up to Rodri and it stands to reason that City will be bidding farewell to another modern great when the curtain comes down on what looks set to be another lavishly successful campaign.

As the last among his generation of pre-Guardiola era contemporaries, the Brazilian veteran is entitled to rue the fact he will find it harder than most to leave with a picturebook moment.

Sergio Aguero unforgettably came on to score twice on his farewell appearance at the Etihad Stadium last May, with Vincent Kompany having implausibly fired home from 30 yards to sink Leicester in a seismic 2019 win.

There was more of an enjoyable pantomime feel when the whole ground was calling desperately for Yaya Toure to “SHOOOOT” against Brighton in 2018.

David Silva did not depart with a league title and did so in the unsatisfactory conditions of behind-closed-doors football. But he still got to spin through a few final