On the first day of May, Man City hosted The Irons, West Ham United, at Manchester's Etihad Stadium.
In the tenth minute, Man City won a corner.
David Silva took it quickly. The West Ham penalty area descended into chaos. Center-back Upson headed the ball clear of the penalty area, but Busquets, who had been lurking outside the box, met the ball at its landing point, controlled it, and struck with his right foot.
The ball skimmed along the grass in a straight line and burrowed into the bottom-right corner of the goal.
One-nil!
Everyone in the stadium froze for a moment. Even the live commentator was visibly stunned before finally bursting into cheers. Man City fans leaped from their seats, wildly chanting Busquets's name and celebrating his goal.
On the pitch, Su Dong sprinted toward Busquets on the touchline with his teammates and gave him a passionate hug. "That long-range shot was brilliant!"
In Su Dong's memory, this seemed to be Busquets's first goal since joining Man City.
From last season until now, Busquets had worked tirelessly as the deep-lying midfielder after arriving at Man City, responsible for passing and orchestrating play. Yet many people believed that Busquets played the smallest role in Man City's midfield and was merely coasting on his status as one of Guardiola's trusted players.
But that clearly wasn't the case.
Being held back in the deep-lying role meant Busquets was not allowed to push forward. His organization and coordination from that position were crucial to Man City's control of the midfield, especially his off-ball movement and support.
Within Man City, hardly anyone questioned Busquets's value, but neither did anyone exaggerate his ability.
Many people said he was like Guardiola. In reality, he wasn't.
If one carefully studied Busquets's match footage, one would discover that