In a statement victory for the Treble-winners, Phil Foden provided the answer to the question of who can resolve Manchester City’s midfield conundrum.
The desire of Pep Guardiola to replace Kevin De Bruyne, who will likely be out until February due to hamstring surgery, has never been a secret. Lucas Paqueta of West Ham was a target before an FA betting probe caused the move to fall through.
The City manager claims that it is hard to ‘copy and paste’ De Bruyne with a new acquisition, but in Foden, he has a player who often found himself in the middle of the pitch setting up attacks, never restricted to his wide starting position. Even while standing over set pieces, his delivery gave off a De Bruyne-like vibe.
In a performance that was the ideal reaction to other concerns at the conclusion of a demanding week, Foden assisted Julian Alvarez in scoring in the opening period. After traveling 3,000 miles to Athens for the UEFA Super Cup, how would City react? They hurled everything at their fiercely favored rivals, who had the entire week to prepare on their practice fields thanks to Eddie Howe. They also discovered another strategy to triumph even without Erling Haaland at his most predatory.
Newcastle has used funding from their Abu Dhabi owners to qualify for the Champions League in what is being billed as the Gulf State Derby, but it will be difficult to catch City, who can win a game in a number of different ways.
There are parallels between the two takeovers, most notably Dan Ashworth’s shrewd maneuvering in the transfer market, which compares to Brian Marwood’s after Abu Dhabi acquired City. However, it is still early in the season for Newcastle, and they were up against a winning team that had already won two games in a row without De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva.
Howe’s first responsibility, similar to an away manager at the Etihad, was to determine what kind of system Guardiola had put his men into. Although it had a nominal 4-2-3-1 formation, it was never effective when they had the ball. Joko Gvardiol made his first Premier League start in what was frequently a flat-back two as they frequently left just a couple of players in their back line.