Something caught my eye during Manchester City’s Champions League encounter with Basel on Tuesday, and it wasn’t Amazonian fish-frog god Bernardo Silva. I saw it on City’s Twitter page — a beautiful little animation of their own and Basel’s badges before the game.
Like a good sports hack reporter boy, I had to know more. Had they done this before? Yes. Had they been doing this since the start of the season? Yes.
Okay.
So I went through their Twitter account, which brought me as far back as December 27. So then I went to their website, went through every game's Matchday Center and scrolled to the very beginning of the proceedings in the hopes of capturing these precious gifs.
Like working in the iron ore mines on the Mesabi Range of Minnesota, it was difficult work, and I almost died when the mine collapsed. But here are all the gifs in all their glory, more precious than taconite.
Basel
Leicester City
Burnley
West Brom
Cardiff City
Bristol City
Newcastle United
Liverpool
Watford
Crystal Palace
Bournemouth
Tottenham
Manchester United
West Ham
Feyenoord
Arsenal
Napoli
Wolves
Stoke City
Everton
Brighton & Hove Albion