City scores, Ruben Dias runs to celebrate, but immediately turns back: he remembered the established rule

Pro Ref, the body that manages professional referees in English football, has admitted that the awarding of Erling Haaland's goal that decided the Manchester derby in City's favour was an error, as Enzo Fernandez's offside position interfered with the action. At the end of the day, however, the three points - perhaps unexpected after Foden's dismissal - remain for Enzo Maresca's team. The Citizens are at the top of the Premier League table with full points, along with Arsenal, after four weeks and everything is going well, even the adjustments that are not closely related to technical and tactical aspects of the game.

In this category of things that make you think positively about the continuation of the season is the behavior of team captain Ruben Dias immediately after Haaland's decisive goal, scored in the second quarter of the second half. The 29-year-old defender of the Portuguese national team set off like all his teammates to celebrate the author of the goal in the friendly fans' section at Old Trafford, but suddenly turned around, changing direction and running towards the bench, where the footage caught him talking to the technician Maresca.

At that moment, Dias had initially forgotten to follow a golden rule established by the Italian coach: as captain, newly appointed after the departure of compatriot Bernardo Silva to Real Madrid, the central defender must go to Maresca every time Manchester City scores, to obtain information and transmit it to his teammates. A fundamental task, all the more so when there was still half an hour left to play in a derby of extraordinary importance for the orientation of the season.

And so, instead of hugging Haaland and all the other team-mates, Dias ran to his coach to exchange a few words with him, the essence of which was then conveyed to the rest of the team on the pitch. It's a rule that Maresca has established during his previous experiences at Leicester and Chelsea, before bringing him to City. After the match, the Italian coach explained that his message was related to limiting Bruno Fernandes' involvement: "Immediately after the goal it was essential to manage those five minutes and continue in the same way. At that moment I told Ruben that we needed a player above Bruno. So when Enzo was on the pitch, when we were with 10 men, he was responsible for Bruno."