Manchester City were beaten 2-0 by Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday as the Reds continued their dominance en route to their second Premier League title.
Where the trophy will be going in May now looks like a foregone conclusion. City have been miles off it all season and for the first time in five years the words ‘Manchester’ and ‘City’ won’t be engraved on the trophy.
Liverpool winning the title will hurt. For many years, it’s been Pep Guardiola who has come out on top of Jurgen Klopp but Arne Slot has waltzed into Anfield with zero intention of setting for the mantle of bridesmaid.
City were pretty abject on Sunday against Liverpool. One positive performance came from Abdukodir Khusanov and fans weren’t impressed that he’d been dug out by some of the pundits at the weekend.
In the aftermath of the defeat, it’s been claimed that six City stars have been told they can leave. Indeed, it feels like the Citizens have come to the end of their current dominant cycle with Guardiola in need of a summer rebuild.
Ian Wright slams performance of Manchester City star Phil Foden vs Liverpool
This season has been far from vintage for Foden. After suffering Euro 2024 heartache with England in the summer, the versatile forward has suffered a rotten hangover from the final defeat to Spain.
Just when it looks like Foden might have turned a corner, it’s very much a case of two steps backwards. The 24-year-old scored in four consecutive games in early January, bagging six goals in total but he’s now gone three without a goal.
Wright felt that Foden was a patch of his usual self against Liverpool. He struggled with the tempo throughout the game and it was perhaps a surprise that Guardiola kept him on the pitch for 90 minutes.
Wright said on the Wrighty’s House Podcast: “It’s like everything that they had, because they didn’t have Haaland as the presence in there, everything they were trying to do to get the ball into the box, Liverpool totally covered it.
“So I didn’t know where it was coming from. I thought Phil Foden was really poor, a really poor performance from him.”
Foden has bagged 10 goals in all competitions from his 34 appearances. He’s also claimed five assists but by his usual standards, there is something seriously wrong with the man who was named the Premier League Player of the Year for 2023/24.
Phil Foden stats vs Liverpool
The City player has been out of sorts this season. It’s hard to put a finger on what has gone wrong but ultimately there have been a clutch of City stars – including Foden – who simply haven’t hit their straps this season.
There is no one reason why City aren’t going to retain their Premier League title this time around. One of those factors is definitely that so many of their usually brilliant stars just haven’t produced their best form.
| Phil Foden stats vs Liverpool | Total |
| Minutes | 90 |
| Touches | 59 |
| Accurate Crosses | 0 |
| Key Passes | 0 |
| Who Scored Rating | 6.40 |
Foden was by no means the only one against Liverpool but he just never got going. He’s so typically been renowned as the man for the big occasion but as Wright suggests, he just never produced the goods against the table-toppers.
The old saying suggests that form is temporary and class is permanent. City will be hoping that proves to be the case and Foden can finish the season with a flourish and return next season determined to prove his critics wrong.
