Tag Archives: Phil Foden

Foden’s Late Winner

On this day (26 February) in 2022 Phil Foden’s late winner for Manchester City at Everton gave Manchester’s Blues a six-point lead over Liverpool at the top of the Premier League.

The game had followed a defeat to Tottenham and some had suggested the initiative in the title race would soon switch to Liverpool but Foden’s goal ensured City retained in control. Everton fans thought their club should have had a penalty as they felt City midfielder Rodri handled a dropping ball inside the area, but a VAR check determined he hadn’t.

Despite considerable noise from the home fans, the first half had been fairly even but in the second City demonstrated their superiority time and time again. Everton ‘keeper Jordan Pickford had to make a number of significant saves, including a double stop to deny Kevin de Bruyne and Bernardo Silva in quick succession. It looked like City were going to be frustrated but in the 82nd minute a Bernardo Silva cross was blocked but not cleared well enough and Phil Foden nipped in, rounded Pickford and scored the only goal of the game.

After the game City manager Pep Guardiola commented that after a difficult first half City: ‘Deserved [the] win and three more points. Goodison Park has always been so difficult. When a striker go with Rodri and they defend really well it is always difficult. You have to find the situations and the second half was much better. We moved the ball a bit quicker, we attacked quicker. The second half they were a little more tired. We were solid behind, we don’t concede much.’

There had been a show of solidarity with Ukraine, where war was taking place following an invasion by Russia. The City players wore Tee-shirts with the Ukraine flag on the front and the message ‘no war’ on the back and City’s Zinchenko received some good applause from both sets of fans as he warmed up as substitute. Pep: ‘What a moment. Thank you so much for all the people. Zinchenko was very pleased. He was warming up. It means what the people want to say. That is why thank you so much for the all the people here and we are looking forward to the next week at home in the derby we can show to Zinchenko and to the Ukraine citizens, what we want.’

The City victory meant that they had their last ten matches against Everton in all competitions, making it Pep Guardiola’s joint-longest winning run against an opponent in his managerial career (equalling 10 v Watford). Highlights of the game here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/everton-manchester-city-premier-league-extended-highlights-63781485

Midfielder Kevin De Bruyne made his 200th Premier League appearance in this game and his 80 assists was the most of any player within their first 200 matches in the competition’s history.

Everton’s manager was the former City player Frank Lampard who had been appointed on 31 January 2022. He commented: ‘One of the reasons I took the job was my feeling of growing up and understanding the history of the club and seeing them as First Division champions and playing here and feeling what the crowd can do. They affect games and I love working in those circumstances. The next two or three weeks will be hard but from what I have seen today, if we keep doing that we will be alright.”

Within a year there were demonstrations against Everton’s owners and Lampard was dismissed.

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Ten Consecutive Wins Record

Manchester City became the first English side to record 10 consecutive top-flight league wins at the start of a year on this day (17 February) in 2021. They defeated Everton 3-1 with goals from Phil Foden, Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva. These were those odd days when we weren’t allowed to go to games but you can see highlights here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/everton-v-manchester-city-extended-highlights-feb-17-2021-63749193

Newport County 1 Manchester City 4

FA Cup day saw Manchester City win 4-1 at Newport County on this day (16 February) in 2019. A crowd of 9,680 watched this tie. The City scorers were Leroy Sane, Phil Foden (2) and Riyad Mahrez. You can watch the highlights here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/match-highlights/2019/february/newport-v-city-extended-highlights

Of course, as has been customary, the difference in value between the sides was quoted often that day. The BBC included this in their match report: ‘There was no overstating the gulf between these two clubs – Newport, with a squad value totalling £70,000, against Manchester City, the world’s most richly-assembled squad at around £450m.’

I still find it odd that others don’t face the same level of money related stats but we’ve got to live with it it seems.

5-0 Champions League Win

On 15 February 2022 Manchester City defeated Sporting 5-0 in the Champions League game at Lisbon. A crowd of 48,129 witnessed the game and you can see highlights here:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/sporting-man-city-champions-league-highlights-63780543

The victory took City through to the quarter finals and the goalscorers were: Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva (2), Phil Foden and Raheem Sterling. It was an incredible performance and Bernardo, whose every touch was booed by the home fans, was particularly impressive that night.

Were you there? Feel free to leave your comments on the game in the comments area below. Thanks

MCFC Score 4 At Anfield

On this day (7th February) in 2021 League leaders Manchester City managed a 4-1 victory over reigning Champions Liverpool. It was the Blues’ greatest win at Anfield for over 80 years.

The Blues have struggled to win at Anfield over the last 40 years (I don’t need to go through the stats, City fans get bombarded with them every time there’s a game at Anfield! So the 2021 resounding victory over Liverpool was significant. City ended up winning the League by 12 points with Manchester United second.

In 1937 the Blues managed a 5-0 victory on Good Friday (and three days later won 5-1 at Maine Road). That season the Blues went on to win the League, as they did in 2021 of course.

As the above advert shows, it cost 3 shillings for a return train fare to Anfield that day (sadly no fans were allowed in 2021).

Here’s how the MCFC match programme remembered the 1937 victory:

I love that advert – so appropriate!

Here are the League results and table following that historic win at Anfield. It’s interesting to see which clubs are no longer members of football’s top division and which of today’s giants are missing.

Here are a few snippets from a Liverpool based newspaper telling the story of that day:

Here’s a few stats from the victory over Liverpool in 2021:

  • Sterling became the third player to score 100 or more goals under Guardiola, after Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (211) and City’s Sergio Aguero (120).
  • Of all players to score at least 10 goals within the top five European leagues (England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) this season, only Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland (20 years 2021 days) is younger than Phil Foden (20 years 255 days). Now where have we heard of Haaland?
  • Since netting his first goal of the season on 15 December 2020, Ilkay Gundogan had scored at least three more Premier League goals than any other player (nine).
  • At 20 years and 255 days Phil Foden is the youngest player to score and assist in a Premier League game at Anfield.
  • Oleksandr Zinchenko made his 50th Premier League appearance on that day.

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Cheltenham For The First Time

On this day (23 January) in 2021 Manchester City played Cheltenham Town for the first time in a competitive fixture. Details and highlights below:

The game ended in a 3-1 City victory but the home side had actually taken the lead first with a 59th minute goal from May. In fact it remained 1-0 right up until the final 9 minutes of normal play.

First Foden netted the equaliser in the 81st minute then, three minutes later Jesus made it 2-1 to City. In the fourth minute of added time Torres made it 3-1 and an embarrassing FA Cup 4th round defeat was avoided! Cheltenham were 72 places below City and, inevitably, much of the media coverage discussed the value of City’s starting 11 (and the bench – I wish City would turn up one day at a game with a diamond encrusted gold bench just so that the usual critics could waffle on even more about the cost of the bench!). Anyway, enough of that, here are the MCFC highlights:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/cheltenham-town-1-3-man-city-short-highlights-63747017

You can also watch the BBC’s version of the highlights here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55766769

Were you at this match? If you were why not leave your memory as a comment or email it to me for possible future use on this website?

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Goalscoring Feats

This season has brought so many wonderful moments for Manchester City with goalscorers in particular getting the headlines for some outstanding performances and record-breaking achievements. Erling Haaland is, of course, attracting a lot of attention for his exploits, while Phil Foden has also continued to impress. It was particularly satisfying when they both scored hat tricks against United in the Manchester derby back in October. This was the first time two players had scored hat tricks in a Manchester derby and their lifetime of City support and connections adds a great deal to the achievement. 

Haaland’s goalscoring feats have caused some to ask about club records and the players who have achieved them. So for today’s piece I’m taking a look at a few past achievements to remember some of those who have done amazingly well for City over the decades while helping to highlight seasonal records that can be aimed at. 

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A Foden First

On this day (25 September) in 2018 Phil Foden was compared to Andres Iniesta after a thrilling performance in the League Cup at Oxford United. Here’s the story of that game:

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Above photo by Steve Daniels for Oxford United.

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Different Gravy: A Review of MCFC’s Together Film

last night I was fortunate to attend the premiere of the new Manchester City film Together at the Everyman Cinema, ABC Building on Quay Street, Manchester. Here is my review of the film and the evening.

Guests were welcomed from 6PM with some drinks and nibbles at the cinema. I’d never been to the Everyman before. It’s a fairly new, stylish cinema and a welcome addition to Manchester’s entertainment offering. The bar area encouraged a relaxed mood and it was good to chat with various City staff and guests, most of whom I haven’t seen since before Covid. I spent quite a bit of time with actor John Henshaw who, like me, had worked on The Keeper (the film about Trautmann – he played Bert’s father-in-law and I was a historical consultant to the film).

About 7pm we were invited into the cinema room, passing the Premier League and League Cup trophies. The seats are plush, most are two seater settee style seats and some are single. Popcorn was of course readily available.

Rob Pollard, a member of City’s media team who many Blues will know, did a great introduction. It was great to see a regular member of City staff fronting the premiere like this and Rob represented all those involved well. Great work and much better to me than bringing on a celebrity announcer who hadn’t a direct connection to the film to present it. The name of the film is Together and Rob’s introduction added to that general theme in my opinion.

The film then started. I won’t give away too much in this review but it is worth explaining what the film is and a few key points/memories from it.

The film follows the players through the final stages of the 2020-21 season showing City’s fight in four competitions. Obviously, there are high points and a few lows in the film but this isn’t a typical ‘let’s see City scoring goals from every angle’ film. Instead it’s a fly on the wall style supported with interviews with players looking back at certain points. Goals and match action are often filmed from a camera in the stands or on the sidelines rather than typical broadcast coverage. I think this adds to the view that we’re observing something we don’t normally see.

There’s quite a bit of humour in there and the personalities of some players really come out. De Bruyne displays a deadpan style of humour – at one point he’s asked what would be going through Mahrez’s mind as he’s preparing to take a penalty and he simply says ‘I don’t know’. Scott Carson arrives dressed as a fireman one day and we learn how popular he is with the rest of the squad. Everyone’s delighted when he gets to appear in his first Premier League game for a decade.

Phil Foden features a lot and he talks about Aguero, explaining how he was in awe of him when Foden first made his way into the team. We also see Aguero telling Foden that he’s ‘Different Gravy’ after the League Cup final.

Food features a lot… we see smoothies being made, Walker helping the chefs and we hear how Riyad’s Pasta has become the most popular dish for several players. Oh, and then there’s Pep trying a bacon sandwich!

There was a personal bonus for me when I spotted two of my nephews on screen holding up an Aguero banner in the film.

Overall, the film is a great watch and lasts over 90 minutes. It’s available on City+ from today and I think that all those involved deserve praise for what they’ve achieved. Considering this is an in-house production the quality of the production is impressive. Football clubs traditionally don’t produce film productions of this quality. Nice work City’s media team.

The ending was always going to be tough for a film that chronicles the last weeks of the season but I think they did a great ending… I won’t say how it ends but keep watching after the CL final conclusion.

Oh, and if you do watch Together make sure you look out for the in-depth description of the ‘boot steamer’ when watching!

Here’s a trailer:

Subscriber Post – Manchester City’s Youngest

Manchester City fans are extremely proud of the development of young players. Throughout the years City’s Academy has developed some extraordinarily talented players. Today I’m taking a look at some of the club’s landmark youngest record holders.

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