Laurence Griffiths/Getty ImagesPablo Zabaleta's contributions, such as taking the ball from Newcastle's Demba Ba, are unglamorous but essential

That august publication The Mirror sent a correspondent, as you would well expect, to last weekend's dustup between Newcastle and Manchester City at St James' Park. It is not a newspaper for delicate tastes with its lurid spreads of teen pop stars and picture specials of reality television people getting out of taxis without putting their knees together first, but the football coverage occasionally pleases and, a little less frequently, also informs.

It was with fleeting interest that my eyes fell to the bottom of the page devoted to the match in question, where the learned scribe in question put his mind to awarding marks - out of 10 - for the day's performers. This is always a scene of carnage and disagreement, where folks are either one-eyed or "weren't watching the same match as me". It is done, I imagine, for reader entertainment and to provoke argument and discussion. Good old-fashioned harmless fun, I was busy thinking to myself, as I perused the inoffensive little numbers.

Sergio Aguero, for his darting, slightly directionless performance had been awarded a man-of-the-match nine, followed swiftly by compatriot Carlos Tevez and the little magician David Silva on eight. I had already subconsciously made the Spaniard my own outstanding performer - I am a sucker for his eye-catching diagonal passes, unexpected pirouettes and deft how-did-he-do-that through passes - but was in no mood to quibble anyway. Both the Argentinian dynamos up front had been excellent too, I thought.

Then, all of a sudden, like a hawk that wheels and soars before eyeing a prize portion of edible beast 20 metres down in the bushes, I stopped, looked again and hovered. My distant quarry was neither a vole nor a fieldmouse, but a small, perfectly formed, plump little "six", operating out of sight of the crowds, where nobody could see it, alongside City's back four.

This particular unobtrusive but well-filled six was placed alongside the name of "Zabaleta", the utilty performer tasked with blocking, shoving, closing down, blasting, sliding, crunching, walloping, skidding, covering and shielding, amongst other less wholesome things. For the balding Argentine, no top corner howitzers, no sublime eye-of-the-needle through balls, just the crunch and wallop of the back four and, if lucky, occasionally, the wallop and crunch of defensive midfield.

Pablo Zabaleta, however, deserves more, much more than this. He is not a run-of-the-mill six-out-of-ten performer and has not been for some time. His work is done mainly at the back, mainly on the flanks, mainly out of sight of The Mirror's northern football correspondent, but this work is increasingly of the very highest nature. It is the work of a player, who has improved beyond measure from the defender plucked from Espanyol by Mark Hughes in August 2008, who might well have provoked the title little-known from certain experts at the time.

With the epithet most improved comes another: that of the most loved. Manchester City fans like their players to sweat a little, to wear their hearts on their sleeves, to show they care what the outcome of each match is and not just in bite-size Twitter chunks, not just in post-match huddles with the great and good of the press, but where it matters most, out there on the grass. It is not for nothing that a banner reading "We dream of playing for the team, play like we dream" cascades across the heads of the faithful before kickoff.

Zabaleta, as seen here, embodies all that City fans hope for from a new recruit to the blue cause. To learn the language, embrace the culture, understand and grow to love the club and to identify with the poor souls crying into their beer on the sidelines. His is the nose on the end of Peter Crouch's boot, the thigh being raked by Paul Scholes' special Cup semifinal tackle, the head being bandaged after one collision too many with Stoke's midfield.

Increasingly also, his is the leg lunging in for the perfectly timed interception, the head getting to the ball above the 2-metre-tall striker and the body steaming up the right wing to play deft one-twos with the aforementioned David Twinkle-Toes Silva. The timing, the precision, the subtlety that has been added to the original package of guts, thunder, dedication and power makes Zabaleta the finished article. City fans are proud that such a big-hearted and complete player pulls on the sky blue every week, because, with men like this in your team, you know you cannot go far wrong.

So, next time you scan the player ratings and prepare to froth and bubble at the indignity of it all, stop alongside the name of Zabaleta and add two to whatever number is printed by his name.

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