No one had expected Manchester City's wingers—Henry and Shevchenko—to work together so seamlessly to deceive Charlton Athletic's defense.
Although City's previous matches had shown their tendency to attack from the flanks, it was usually through Cafu or Roberto Carlos. In the First Division, when wingers participated in the attacks, it was mostly to create space or support the main striker.
The primary threat still came from wide areas. But never before had two wingers connected directly in such a way.
Manchester City had just shown the public that they were now playing Premier League-level football.
Tactically, Premier League teams had already started moving away from the traditional striker role—no longer relying solely on a target man or poacher to stay in the penalty box.
