SportNews columnist Laura Hunter tackles talking points from the latest Premier League matchweek, with a special look at Phil Foden's improving form for Manchester City this season and Sunderland's incredible Premier League impact.
The last time Manchester City won the Premier League, Phil Foden was their standout star. His career-best campaign included 19 league goals, just eight fewer than Erling Haaland, and will be remembered as the season the precocious academy talent finally realised his infinite potential.
The assumption was that Foden's form would carry into England's Euro 2024 bid that same summer, perhaps even act as enough of a catalyst to see Gareth Southgate's side victorious in Germany. But despite seven tournament starts and England's run to the final, Foden failed to turn up. Elevated expectation was proving tough to handle on relatively young shoulders.
The barren season that followed coincided with Man City's fall from grace. They faltered in almost every competition, sensationally succeeding their title to Liverpool by December while losing their champions aura along the way. Foden looked especially adrift, a shadow of the Footballer of the Year from 2023/24.
Foden's recent past is only relevant here because of the comeback story unfolding now. "This season is the Phil we met a long, long time ago," assures Pep Guardiola. He means the Foden who plays consistently on the half-turn, with absolute awareness and erring control. The kind that picks pockets and rides challenges as if incidental.
"I love Phil in central positions," his manager said after victory over Leeds on Saturday. "He has a special sense for goal". That same eye for goal got Man City out of jail at the weekend despite their best efforts to surrender a two-goal lead.
Foden scored in the first minute and 91st minute, two of few moments of class amid a jarring all-round City display - one that harked back to the chaos of this time last year. This is not Foden of 12 months ago, though. Not by a long shot.
The 25-year-old is becoming a leader in this new-look City team, a pillar of dependability for Pep, and a match-winner when team-mates around him are struggling to deliver. Haaland only managed one shot all afternoon which arrived in the 88th minute - his joint-fewest on record when playing at home. But Haaland's role was not inconsequential despite only managing 18 touches in the opposition half all game.
Foden's effectiveness relies on his ability to attract desperate defenders, exposing gaps of space. It's the perfect decoy. The image below shows Haaland occupying enough attention for Foden to ghost into the box unattended and score inside 59 seconds.
For Foden, pockets of space are like play toys. He's got a unique nose for finding them. Before the ball reaches him he's surveyed two or three times, assessed multiple options, and then shaped his body to receive and move or shoot in one swift motion.
He could have scored a hat-trick if not for a superb block from James Justin on Saturday, where Haaland had drawn every other defender to the front post, illustrated below.
According to xG value that chance was easier than each of the two he actually scored. This third image shows how criminally unaware Leeds' backline were of Foden's threat from two yards inside their box, instead using three defenders to pin Haaland centrally.
Six goals and three assists in all competitions is a healthy return for a player on his way back to the very top. Pep finished his press conference at the weekend by calling Foden's renewed form a gift and saying what an "incredible pleasure" it was to be his manager, adding: "he has this mentality to say 'give me the ball, I'm going to win the game'."
City have closed the gap on Arsenal to five points and are back up to second, while proving they still have the resolve and quality to respond to setbacks in marginal games. All too often it has been Haaland's heroics that gets them out of tight spots, more frequently this season it has also been Foden.
This weekend marked the first time Sunderland have ever come from two goals down to win in any of their 188 Premier League games they have trailed by that margin to date. It was a thrilling display of guts and glory, and another example of why Regis Le Bris' side are the best addition to the top-flight for some time.
The rebuilding of this side in one summer to compete at such a level is a feat of recruitment genius from Sunderland's board. To get them clicking so quickly shows equally impressive managerial nous from Le Bris, abandoning sentiment in favour of robustness. One must not forget that the Sunderland side to earn promotion through the Championship play-offs last season cost approximately £10m to assemble - most of those were signed while in League One.
Perhaps the biggest upgrade has been in midfield, with Granit Xhaka earning plaudits for his ability to anchor and lift those around him. Noah Sadiki has also proved to be an exceptionally shrewd addition, so too goalkeeper Robin Roefs.
But Sunderland's essence can equally be captured by those who have risen with the club, like towering defender Dan Ballard, scorer as Sunderland took points from Arsenal a few weeks back. Wilson Isador and Enzo Le Fee are also examples of players who have made the step up from the second tier look like second nature. The latter had a hand in all three goals in Saturday's win over Bournemouth, scoring the opener and assisting the other two.
These are halcyon days at the Stadium of Light, sixth in the Premier League, unbeaten at home all season. Teams that travel to this outpost in north-east England do so now with fear. Long may that disturbance to the established hierarchy continue.
