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Another Phil Foden Brace Bounces City Back into The Title Race
Amar Zukancic
What a moment that was. Another clutch moment from one of our very own, as he continues to build his legacy as a future Premier League Legend. After a very good, but weird performance from the lads, Foden won it for us in the first minute of stoppage time against Leeds on Saturday afternoon. It looks like Pep has his preferred lineup now as it's the same one we’ve used the past few matches, except Tijjani Reijnders came in for Rayan Cherki. We started off red hot as an interchange between our Portuguese right hand side eventually fell to the feet of Phil Foden who gave us the lead within the first minute of the match. After that we stayed on the front foot and after Josko Gavrdiol made it 2-0 in the 25th minute, it looked like we were going to comfortably boost our goal difference. Right after the stroke of half Dominic Calvert-Lewin pulled one back for the visitors. Twenty minutes later Gvardiol made a terrible challenge in the box and cancelled out his goal from earlier by giving away a penalty. Donnarumma saved City product Lukas Nmecha’s penalty, but the rebound fell right to him and he brought the match level. We kept on attacking and making genuinely good chances, but it seemed like one of those matches where the ball just didn't want to go into the back of the net. Blocks, deflections, and clearances galore for Leeds, and the ball was always ending up on the wrong side of the goalposts. Then as soon as the 10 minutes of added time were announced, Rayan Cherki played a ball across the top of the box to Phil Foden. He carried the ball across the box and then slotted the ball home for his second goal of the match, and to secure the three points for City.
It was a great performance from the lads which on a better day probably finished 6-1 for us. It was great to see Nunes and O’Reilly get another assist each on the day just like they did against Liverpool, the midfield looked fluid with Reijnders coming back in, and Doku and Foden looked as creative and potent as ever. There were some worries though. Haaland didn't look his best, but knowing his quality he's by far the least of any of our worries. Gvardiol made a boneheaded challenge that he shouldn't and you don't expect him to make it again, and Nunes had his first brain fart of the season was 100% to blame for Leeds’ opener. These all aren't major flaws, and not ones that anyone should be losing any sleep over. Those are three of our best players this season, and we should trust them to clear it out of their mind before Tuesday. Foden shined once again and showed why he's the face and heart of the club. He comes up in the moments, knows how much it means to the city, and is once again in form and winning us matches in a title race just like he has in past seasons. Although he was benched, it was good to see that Rayan Cherki didn't flinch and still had another goal contribution off of the bench to win us the match.
Now is where the schedule congestion really picks up. We travel to Craven Cottage in the week to take on Fulham on Tuesday evening, and then go back home on Saturday to take on the biggest surprise team of the season, Sunderland, and then the following Wednesday we travel to Madrid. That’s three big matches in 9 days, and our squad depth will really be tested. I have a feeling that the Madrid match will be the one we “take off”, but all of us fans know that’s not what we want and we want to beat them. It is imperative though that we take advantage of all of these Premier League matches and not drop any more points in order to stay close to Arsenal in the table. Tomorrow is a big match, and Arsenal take on Chelsea. We’d love to see a Chelsea win or a draw, and the result of that match could be a massive boost for our title charge. On to Fulham.
It looks like Pep has his preferred lineup now as it's the same one we’ve used the past few matches, except Tijjani Reijnders came in for Rayan Cherki. We started off red hot as an interchange between our Portuguese right hand side eventually fell to the feet of Phil Foden who gave us the lead within the first minute of the match. After that we stayed on the front foot and after Josko Gavrdiol made it 2-0 in the 25th minute, it looked like we were going to comfortably boost our goal difference. Right after the stroke of half Dominic Calvert-Lewin pulled one back for the visitors. Twenty minutes later Gvardiol made a terrible challenge in the box and cancelled out his goal from earlier by giving away a penalty. Donnarumma saved City product Lukas Nmecha’s penalty, but the rebound fell right to him and he brought the match level. We kept on attacking and making genuinely good chances, but it seemed like one of those matches where the ball just didn't want to go into the back of the net. Blocks, deflections, and clearances galore for Leeds, and the ball was always ending up on the wrong side of the goalposts. Then as soon as the 10 minutes of added time were announced, Rayan Cherki played a ball across the top of the box to Phil Foden. He carried the ball across the box and then slotted the ball home for his second goal of the match, and to secure the three points for City. 
It was a great performance from the lads which on a better day probably finished 6-1 for us. It was great to see Nunes and O’Reilly get another assist each on the day just like they did against Liverpool, the midfield looked fluid with Reijnders coming back in, and Doku and Foden looked as creative and potent as ever. There were some worries though. Haaland didn't look his best, but knowing his quality he's by far the least of any of our worries. Gvardiol made a boneheaded challenge that he shouldn't and you don't expect him to make it again, and Nunes had his first brain fart of the season was 100% to blame for Leeds’ opener. These all aren't major flaws, and not ones that anyone should be losing any sleep over. Those are three of our best players this season, and we should trust them to clear it out of their mind before Tuesday. Foden shined once again and showed why he's the face and heart of the club. He comes up in the moments, knows how much it means to the city, and is once again in form and winning us matches in a title race just like he has in past seasons. Although he was benched, it was good to see that Rayan Cherki didn't flinch and still had another goal contribution off of the bench to win us the match. 
Now is where the schedule congestion really picks up. We travel to Craven Cottage in the week to take on Fulham on Tuesday evening, and then go back home on Saturday to take on the biggest surprise team of the season, Sunderland, and then the following Wednesday we travel to Madrid. That’s three big matches in 9 days, and our squad depth will really be tested. I have a feeling that the Madrid match will be the one we “take off”, but all of us fans know that’s not what we want and we want to beat them. It is imperative though that we take advantage of all of these Premier League matches and not drop any more points in order to stay close to Arsenal in the table. Tomorrow is a big match, and Arsenal take on Chelsea. We’d love to see a Chelsea win or a draw, and the result of that match could be a massive boost for our title charge. On to Fulham. 
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