Thursday 27 December 2018 17:16, UK
As another exhilarating year of footballing action draws to a close, the Soccer Saturday pundits have picked their personal highlights from the past 12 months.
The climax of 2018 is nearly upon us, which means it is a good time to sit back and reflect on some of the best moments of the footballing year.
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Manchester City made a mockery of the records en route to a first Premier League crown under Pep Guardiola, Liverpool came within a whisker of another European title, while some iconic managers said goodbye to England, for now at least.
The Soccer Saturday pundits have taken time to pick out their personal favourite moment of the year, with some a little more left field than others...
It had been a long time. That was a huge, huge thing for the country. That was England's moment of the World Cup, really. We hadn't won a penalty shoot-out for a long time.
I was lucky enough to score a penalty in a World Cup shootout, and it's not easy. That walk is a horrible walk, so for those players to step up, with the pressure on their shoulders, that's the highlight of the year for me.
My moment of 2018 was Arsene Wenger's emotional farewell. He had an outstanding career at Arsenal. He was a genius and I certainly loved watching Wenger's team.
We all know about the history, the titles and the Invincibles, but I did think in the end it was the right time. It was the right way for it to happen and I was very, very pleased with the way the club and everybody else got behind it.
Sure, there was a bit of hypocrisy in there because there were people creating mayhem to get him out the door, but he was an absolute legend at Arsenal Football Club. Seeing him go was emotional, but it was the right thing in the end and the farewell was done in the right way. It was the least he deserved.
My personal highlight was probably being in the Swansea stadium when Manolo Gabbiadini poked in for a scruffy 1-0 win that effectively kept Southampton up.
It was a very emotional night, as it has not been much better since. It looked for a long while that we would be going down, which would have been a disaster for the club.
Things are starting to look up again, especially after the weekend, but if we had gone down, it could have been tough to climb back up again. We have a lot to thank Manolo for.
Gabriel Jesus scoring that goal at Southampton that gave Manchester City 100 points, which in its own way is a great achievement. They'd already scored 100 goals and then when he scored in injury time to make sure they got 100 points it was amazing.
Pep showed what it meant to him and his side with his celebrations and that tells you that it was such a great achievement.
