Edin Dzeko of Manchester City (Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
This was not because the side played exceptionally well â€" they didn’t â€" but because it was achieved by coming from behind with ten men against a team that had won its first four Premiership home games this season.
It was timely as well, with leaders Chelsea securing an outstanding 4-2 win at Tottenham and Manchester United beating Stoke at Old Trafford by the same scoreline.
Staying in touch with the early pace-setters while not capturing last season’s form â€" yet at least â€" is something City have managed to do, partly though the ability to chisel out results and score late goals in a manner reminiscent of so many Manchester United sides of the past two decades.
Whatever that says about imitation and flattery, it is an important attribute for serious title challengers and so far this season Edin Djeko has been a key figure in turning games from the substitutes’ bench, never more so than with his double at the Hawthorns.
This has brought comparisons with one particular Manchester United player, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, whose match-winning feats are the stuff of legend. Of course, it helps that these included a last-minute Champions League winning goal in 1999, but earlier that season the Norwegian had the chance to leave Old Trafford for White Hart Lane. In accepting his role at Old Trafford and then reveling in it, he carved a niche for which he remains loved in the red half of Manchester.
Could this be the destiny for Dzeko? In one sense it already is, for he played his own heroic part in last seasons’ dramatic climax. After all, without him coming off the bench and  scoring two minutes into stoppage time in that unforgettable game against QPR, there would have been no chance for Aguero to win the match and the title.
The qualities of the two strikers are actually quite different. Dzeko’s height is his obvious strength, but he has a lot of pace too. Solskjaer was himself quick, but not as speedy as the Bosnian. Instead, his greatest skill was his movement and ability to sneak between the centre-halves and finish with accuracy and power.
However, the super-sub label dates back to before Solskjaer’s time. In Liverpool’s dominant years of the 1970s and 80s â€" when just one substitute was allowed â€" that man would usually be David Fairclough, who would use his pace to get behind tiring defenses and score crucial goals as a result. Perhaps the most famous of these was his Kop end winner in an epic European Cup tie against St Etienne in 1977.
A boyhood Liverpool fan, Solskjaer might have appreciated the comparison. Whether the pigeonholing of Dzeko as City’s answer to the man from Molde goes down well with the Bosnian is another matter.
On the one hand, it might be Dzeko is indeed at his most effective as an ‘impact player’ and remains a match-winner in the role for years to come. On the other, he might just get fed up with it all. Either way one thing is for sure; unlike one of his team-mates, he has never yet shown the slightest unwillingness to climb off the bench and get into the action.
Manchester City News
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