Fabulous Foden
City youngster stars in 5-0 romp over hapless Burnley
Replacing David Silva is an unenviable task, but performances such as this from Phil Foden must reassure Pep Guardiola that the Premier League title may not take up a lengthy residence on Merseyside.
Manchester City know they will be surrendering their crown to Liverpool soon enough but there seems to be little appetite to just hand it over and, if Foden can live up to his enormous potential in Silva’s absence next season and Guardiola recruits wisely in the months ahead, the Catalan will hope to get his trophy back before too long.
Dropped points from City here would have given Liverpool the opportunity to win the title with victory against Crystal Palace at Anfield tomorrow, but there never appeared any danger of that from the moment Foden kick-started this rout with a splendid finish.
He kept Burnley firmly on the back foot until his substitution late on, scoring another, having a hand in two more, and was ably assisted by a supporting cast in which Riyad Mahrez was the standout.
By the end, that supporting cast had extended to include Leroy Sane, brought off the bench for his first appearance since August last year after a ruptured cruciate, but Guardiola’s happiness at welcoming back the Germany winger was tempered by the loss, possibly for the remainder of the campaign, of Sergio Aguero with a foot injury.
The prospect of Guardiola being unable to call upon the Argentina striker would be a huge blow to City’s hopes of winning the Champions League this term, and place a huge burden on others to step up.
So far, at least, they are doing that. Mahrez also had a couple of goals to show for his efforts, the Algerian demonstrating the sort of form that earned him the PFA Player of the Year award in 2016, and Bernardo Silva was lively, but it was to Foden that the eye kept being drawn.
He scored when he came on as a substitute in last Wednesday’s 3-0 win over Arsenal and the 20-yearold Englishman has returned from the lockdown looking stronger than ever and with little interest in waiting until Silva departs at the end of the season to force his way into this team on a consistent basis.
If he keeps this up, Guardiola may find it impossible to overlook him.
So that was the good. Now for the bad, and we are not talking here about Burnley, as poor, undercooked and depleted as they were. The players had not long risen to their feet after taking the knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement when a plane trailing a banner bearing the words “white lives matter Burnley!” began circling.
It was a grim scene but it was to Burnley’s credit that they were quick to condemn the actions of a handful of morons and Ben Mee’s eloquence on the matter was reflective of a club who have worked hard to bring the town together on issues of race and discrimination.
This had looked like a mismatch before kick-off. While Guardiola was able to call on talent worth £353million among his substitutes, Sean Dyche, his opposite number, was not even able to name a full bench. A combination of injuries and wrangles over his out-of-contract players led the Burnley manager to include a second-year scholar, Max Thompson, 18, and 19-year-old centre-half Bobby Thomas among the seven on his bench, only two of whom had represented the first team.
Still, Burnley did not help them
selves. This was their first match since March 7 and it showed. They were slow to close down the space for the first two goals and dropped deeper and deeper the longer the game went on. It was already an exercise in damage limitation before Silva had plundered City’s fourth within six minutes of the restart.
The second goal will have angered Dyche the most. Fernandinho floated a long pass out wide to Mahrez. There was acres of grass to drive into and Charlie Taylor was so slow to get across to the City forward you wondered if he was trailing an anchor. Eventually, he got within sight of Mahrez, but he was turned inside out before the former Leicester City man calmly stroked the ball past Nick Pope.
Foden was in his element, too. As good as his first goal was, a beautifully controlled finish into the bottom corner from Bernardo’s pass, it was not as arresting a sight as his pass that conjured the fourth goal. From a short corner, City worked the ball to Foden, who shaped to shoot but played a lovely disguised pass, Silva-style, to Bernardo, who squared for Silva to tap home.
Aguero’s injury came when Mee caught him on the back of his right foot, a challenge that earned City a penalty, after review by Var, that was coolly dispatched by Mahrez.
The good news for Burnley was that Mahrez was withdrawn on the hour. The bad news was Kevin De Bruyne was introduced and he did not need long to make his mark, driving through the middle to feed Bernardo. Gabriel Jesus’s attempted shot from Bernardo’s pass inside turned into a pretty good pass for Foden – who else – to slot home at the near post for his second.