It was four days after Carlos Tevez had been placed in exile that Pablo Zabaleta went to warm up at Ewood Park.
October 2011 and manager Roberto Mancini had sent Tevez back to Argentina alleging Manchester City’s star striker had refused to come off the bench during a defeat at Bayern Munich.
Tevez refuted the suggestions but as civil war raged, his compatriot Zabaleta was caught in the crossfire. He had been sitting next to Tevez at the time of the non-substitution and so the right back’s role in the debacle was being questioned.
Mancini had confronted Zabaleta after the game, believing he had spoken up on Tevez’s behalf during a slanging match on the bench and in full view of the world. The Italian manager quickly admitted he’d made a mistake but there remained chatter about the player’s involvement in the furore.
And so what happened away at Blackburn Rovers that weekend would act as a defining moment in Zabaleta’s City career – and one that helped earn him cult hero status.
As he started a normal pre-match routine, Zabaleta went towards the away support, pointing at the club crest and then beginning to punch it in a show of emotion that was not necessarily natural to him. Fans who were there still remember it now, talk about a depth of feeling and sentiment in that simple act, turning a page on one of the most turbulent weeks of the club’s history. Zabaleta galvanised a section of the support in those few seconds.
City won 4-0 that day – then beat Aston Villa and Villarreal at home before heading across town to Old Trafford. The 6-1, the afternoon City’s travelling support will gleefully sing about during Saturday’s derby as they suggest that yes, it could have been 10.
An away section that has, over recent months, reignited its relationship with City’s squad. There is naturally some subjectivity with this idea, and to what extent a reawakening is conscious or otherwise, but there is an acceptance from both sides that a stronger bond is forming.
Results are better for a start, although the eight-match winless run away from home last season probably provided some perspective to fans whose expectations had rightly shifted over years of unimagined success. Anger turned to humour and then resilience during those fairly miserable months of last winter.
There are similarities with what Zabaleta chose to do in Lancashire all those years ago, the season of their first modern-day title, with something that happened before a recent match.
Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in September, seven months after a 5-1 shellacking there. Pep Guardiola’s starting XI gathered together for a huddle ahead of kick-off but did so right in front of the away enclosure. This had never, ever happened before and was clearly pointed, final instructions dished out next to a corner flag.
The thousands there all noticed it, felt its significance, and City almost hung on for three points as Arsenal chucked everything in their direction while pursuing an equaliser, eventually forcing one in stoppage time. The huddle was a surprise, as was the performance, the antithesis of a Guardiola team – backs against the wall, low block, a rearguard that will have relied on collective energy and grit.
A week earlier, after beating Manchester United, Guardiola’s team embarked on a lap of appreciation around the Etihad Stadium. That decision didn’t feel overly unusual, it is the sort of reaction you might expect to big wins, but it has now become a ritual. The players have remarked to each other at how this is creating a greater connection.
And it is noticeable that both of those instances – the lap against United, the huddle at Arsenal – came in the days after a crucial leadership meeting between captain Bernardo Silva and his deputies Ruben Dias, Rodri and Erling Haaland.
Those four met after consecutive league defeats by Tottenham and Brighton. Clearly, those conversations were productive and those underneath them have bought into the ideas.
Haaland, who regularly gifts his shirt to the crowd along with Phil Foden, has been pulled into the away end when celebrating a goal at Brentford this season. Gianluigi Donnarumma’s exuberance is going down well. Silva is orchestrating that they all go over to appreciate the support.
That support is giving back, too. The Guardiola ditty, to the tune of Glad All Over by The Dave Clark Five, has returned with a bit extra. It was on show after a festive win at Nottingham Forest, on a day that showcased this electric connection – and when City needed to dig deep as they had at Arsenal. Guardiola jostled a cameraman to share in that atmosphere, getting the air drums out.
The famous clip of Guardiola drumming along to that chant, away at Leicester City after winning a Carabao Cup penalty shootout in 2017 on the way to his first trophy as City manager, was an anomaly really.
It was not always a given that City players would appreciate their travelling support. In 2019, fewer than 100 made the journey, from Manchester to London Gatwick to Kyiv to Kharkiv, to watch a group game against Shakhtar Donetsk.
City won 3-0 yet none of their stars ventured over to the away fans to say thanks. According to those who had made the trip – an official following of 114 but with a decent number of ‘Ukrainian Blues’ in attendance - the players did not make it over the halfway line to even wave.
Fans wrote to the club complaining at the behaviour, receiving letters signed by Guardiola, Oleksandr Zinchenko or Fernandinho offering gratitude at the sacrifices they’d made to be there. There was an offer of hospitality seats for the return game by way of apology.
That sort of episode feels detached from City’s reality these days as they head a few miles west as a united front.