Sky Sports columnist Laura Hunter tackles the latest Premier League matchweek talking points, with a special look at Phil Foden’s in-form form at Manchester City this season and Sunderland’s surprising impact on the Premier League.
Haaland’s role in Foden’s return
Phil Foden was the standout star the last time Manchester City won the Premier League. The best season of his career included 19 league goals, just eight fewer than Erling Haaland, and will be remembered as the season in which a precocious academy talent finally realized his limitless potential.
The assumption was that Foden’s form would lead to a place for England at Euro 2024 that summer, perhaps acting as enough of a catalyst for Gareth Southgate’s side to win in Germany. However, despite making seven appearances in the tournament and England reaching the final, Foden failed to feature. The heightened expectations proved difficult for relatively young shoulders to handle.
The barren season that followed coincided with Man City’s downfall. Although they stumbled in almost every competition and lost their champion aura along the way, they sensationally handed the title to Liverpool by December. Foden looked particularly buoyant, with shadows of him being the player of the year for the 2023/24 season.
Foden’s recent past is only relevant here because of the comeback story currently unfolding. “This season is the Phil I met a long time ago,” declares Josep Guardiola. That means Foden playing consistently on the half-turn with absolute awareness and false control. The type that picks up pockets and challenges them as if they are accompanying them.
“I love Phil in the center position,” the manager said after Saturday’s win over Leeds. “He has a special feel for goal.” With that same eye for goal, Man City got out of jail at the weekend despite their best efforts to give back a two-goal lead.
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Highlights of the Premier League match between Manchester City and Leeds United.
Foden scored in the first minute and in the 91st minute, two of the few great moments in a generally unpleasant spell for City, but it was reminiscent of the turmoil of this period last year. However, this is not the Foden of 12 months ago. It’s not a far off story.
The 25-year-old has emerged as the leader of this new City team, becoming a reliable pillar for Pep and a match-winner at a time when teammates around him are struggling to make a difference. Haaland had just one shot all afternoon, which came in the 88th minute, the lowest ever for a player playing at home. However, Haaland’s role was not significant, despite having just 18 touches in the opposition half throughout the game.
Foden’s effectiveness depends on his ability to attract desperate defenders and expose gaps in space. It’s the perfect decoy. The image below shows Haaland ghosting into the box with Foden unattended and attracting enough attention to score within 59 seconds.
Foden’s opening goal was scored within 59 seconds and was uncontested in the box.
For Foden, pockets of space are like toys. He has a unique nose for finding them. By the time the ball got to him, he surveyed it two or three times, evaluating multiple options and shaping his body to receive and move or shoot with quick movements.
He could have scored a hat trick if James Justin hadn’t made a great block on Saturday. Haaland drew all the other defenders to the front post, as shown below.
Foden should have scored from this position as three defenders were busy chasing Haaland’s run inside the six yard area
According to his xG value, that chance was easier than the two chances he actually scored. This third image shows that Leeds’ backline were criminally unaware of Foden’s threat from two yards inside the box, instead using three defenders to pin Haaland in the middle.
Haaland occupied three defenders in the middle and Foden scored the winning goal.
Six goals and three assists in all competitions is a healthy return for a player looking to get back to the top. Speaking after a press conference at the weekend, Pep called Foden’s transformed form a gift, saying it was an “incredible pleasure” to take over as manager, adding: “He has the mentality to say, ‘Give me the ball and we’re going to win the game.’
City have moved up to second place, five points clear of Arsenal, but have shown they still have the determination and quality to deal with setbacks in close games. Too often it is Haaland’s heroics that save the day, but this season it has often been Foden who has done it.
Why Sunderland are the best addition to the PL for many years
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Watch for free: Highlights of the Premier League match between Sunderland and Bournemouth.
This weekend, Sunderland won from a two-goal deficit for the first time in 188 Premier League games in which they have led by a wide margin. It was a thrilling display of guts and glory, and another example of why Regis Le Bris’ side are the best additions to the top flight for some time.
It is a feat of recruiting genius on the part of Sunderland’s board to rebuild this team to compete at this level in one summer. Getting it to click so quickly shows Mr. Le Bris’s equally impressive business sense, abandoning emotion in favor of solidity. Let’s not forget that it cost the Sunderland side around £10 million to form last season in order to win promotion in the Championship play-offs. Most of them were signed while still in League One.
Perhaps the biggest upgrade is in midfield, where Granit Xhaka has won praise for his ability to anchor and elevate players around him. Noah Sadiki has also proven to be a very astute addition, as has goalkeeper Robin Rufus.
But the essence of Sunderland is equally captured in the players who have grown up with the club, such as towering defender Dan Ballard, who was Sunderland’s top scorer as they snatched a point from Arsenal a few weeks ago. Wilson Isadore and Enzo Le Fet are also examples of players who made the step up from the second tier seem like second natures. The latter was involved in all three goals in Saturday’s win over Bournemouth, scoring the opening goal and assisting the other two.
Calm days continue at the Stadium of Light, where they are 6th in the Premier League and undefeated at home all season. The team now travels in fear as they head to this outpost in northeast England. Long may there be disruption to established hierarchies.
