Vincent Kompany shows again why he's still Manchester City's inspirational and emotional core

The veteran centre-back showed exactly why Pep Guardiola gambled on him in City's most important game of the season

People talk about fine margins at this time of the season, but you’d be hard pushed to beat Sheffield Wednesday in the 1948-49 Second Division. In those days, teams level on points were separated on goal average, or in other words the average number of goals scored per game. And so as the final whistle blew on the season, Wednesday won promotion over their rivals Sheffield United by the feather-light margin of 0.008 of a goal: or, to put in a more modern footballing argot, the expected goals value of a Christian Benteke shot from six yards.

The early signs are, however, that this current Premier League title race between Liverpool and Manchester City could come fairly close. The 1cm by which John Stones’s botched clearance failed to clear the goal-line. The fine deflection that diverted Leroy Sane’s winning goal past the hand of Alisson, off the far post and in. And yet, perhaps the finest margin of all was in the mind of referee Anthony Taylor, as he pondered whether or not to show Manchester City’s captain Vincent Kompany a red card for his dicey challenge on Mo Salah.

First things first: it was a red-card challenge. The process in Taylor’s mind probably went something like this: a point for feet off the ground. A point for the lack on control. A point for studs up. A point for being the last man. Deduct a point for Salah’s distance from goal. Add a point because it’s Salah, and he’s probably going to put that chance away. Deduct a point because he won the ball (which isn’t the way it’s supposed to work, but we know it does). Deduct a point because it’s still the first half and you don’t want to ruin the spectacle. Deduct a point because they’re the home team, and if you lose the crowd now you’ll never get them back. Final tally: one point. What does that mean? No idea, it’s a completely arbitrary scale that you probably should have defined a bit better before you embarked on it. Sod it. Yellow.

Kompany, for his part, thought it was “a great challenge”, adding: “I felt I got the ball, a bit of the man, but it wasn’t naughty. I didn’t try to injured him, that’s for sure.” Of course, none of this skirts remotely within spitting distance of the actual rules of football, but of course Kompany knows that. He was just having a little fun. In war, as in the Sky Sports post-match interview, history is written by the victors.

What’s more interesting to consider is how things might have panned out for Kompany if Taylor had shown him the red card. Naturally, the condemnation would have been swift. Pep Guardiola and his team-mates would have publicly backed him, but among most dispassionate observers the question being raised would be whether Kompany - at the age of 32 and with a long injury history - was still fit for purpose in big games like this.

It was his first game against top-five opposition for nine months. He’s the slowest of City’s centre-halves, although Nicolas Otamendi jogs him close (and since the 3-0 defeat at Anfield in April, followed by the 3-2 reverse against Manchester United three days later, Guardiola hasn’t dared to use them together in the Premier League). In a team, and a league, wound ever more tightly towards the principle of explosive speed, it’s possible to see Kompany as increasingly out of step, a man out of time.

Kompany could have been sent-off for this tackle on Salah (PA)

That was the danger as Taylor reached for his pocket. But given a reprieve, Kompany began to show exactly why Guardiola had gambled on him. Until his late substitution, he marshalled the defence against the expected waves of Liverpool pressure. Protected ably by Fernandinho on the ground, he dealt in the air with the barrage of quick long balls over the top to Liverpool’s wingers. He was characteristically dominant at set pieces. Above all, in a team geared for balls-out aggression, Kompany’s presence offered him a confrontational, inspirational edge none of his team-mates can really match.

He’s always had this in his game. In an interview last year he remembered that even when he was playing junior football aged six or seven, his team-mates would be frightened to return to the dressing room after a defeat, simply because they knew he would be there lying in wait. Kompany is a perfectly lovely guy off the pitch - even a defeated Klopp was at pains to stress as much afterwards. But on it, he can be a perfect scoundrel. “Our performance was beyond anything else I’ve ever witnessed,” he said afterwards. “It came from our guts, and a desire you can’t describe.

Kompany avoided dismissal and helped inspire City (AP)

To the neutral observer, City can occasionally seem a touch bloodless: those perfect little magicians, weaving their perfect little triangles. When you listen to Kompany speak, however, you see a different side: the pure hunger that hauls a club out of mediocrity and into the hall of champions. Nobody embodies that better than Kompany. “The 12th man is more than just the fans,” he explained. “It’s something from within. And we are a better team when we play with emotions.”

He’s right. Kompany is the last link in the present squad to its pre-Abu Dhabi days. He still remembers training at Carrington, when there was no door on the toilet, and if you wanted a cup of coffee you had to bring it yourself. He’s been on the whole journey, and knows it better than anyone. And even though the limbs are creaking a little, he remains - more than anyone else - City’s emotional core: the beating heart and the restless desire that on nights like this can eke out the very finest of margins.