Pep Guardiola is now in the middle of his ninth season in charge of Manchester City.
Since arriving at the Etihad Stadium back in 2016, the Catalan has overlooked 483 matches along the way.
During his time at City, the 53-year-old has used a total of 90 players to help guide the club to a plethora of domestic and European trophies.
One of those players is Phil Foden, who Guardiola gave his senior City debut to back in November 2017 after working his way through the club’s youth academy.
Seven years later, Gary Lineker admitted he loves watching Foden play for City.
Having now made 277 first-team appearances for his boyhood club, the 24-year-old has pinpointed one particular match he thinks played a big role in allowing him to become the figure he is today.
Phil Foden highlights the key match in his Man City career
In a recent interview shared on the official Man City website, Foden reflected on the club’s 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur back in the 2018/19 season which ended up being a crucial victory for the Blues in their race with Liverpool to win the title.
He said: “Coming off the back of the Champions League defeat to Tottenham, we had them not long after and it was a massively important game in the Premier League.
“It was so hard to bounce back from a game like that. Everyone saw the way we celebrated, everyone thought we’d scored and it got disallowed.
“To play against the same team not long after is never easy. I can remember seeing the teamsheet and the manager had put me in and thinking: ‘Wow! This is a massive game. I have to step up here and try to help the team.’
“The way we handled ourselves in that game was brilliant and we got our revenge in a way because we went on to win the Premier League.
“I still think that’s one of the most important goals I’ve scored. That did a lot for me, it gave me confidence and I came out of my shell a little bit more.”
Guardiola thinks Foden ‘can be better’
Looking back to that big game against Spurs in the 2018/19 campaign, the Englishman had only started one league match before that one.
Given how vital it was for City to keep winning games at that stage of the season, it was certainly a big gamble from Guardiola to start the relatively inexperienced Foden against Tottenham.
However, the academy graduate repaid the faith put in him that day by bagging the winning goal.
Despite now having the England international as a prominent figure in his City team, Guardiola still thinks Foden has more to give on the pitch.
Back in May, shortly before seeing the midfielder get named the Premier League Player of the Year for the 2024/25 season, Guardiola said this about how Foden can improve.
He said: “Sometimes his game is excited, and you have to be more calm because of the excitement he has. It’s a question of time.
“But he has been really, really important.
“I have a feeling he can be better. He can do it because as I said many times he loves football, he enjoys to be on the pitch, and I have the feeling he doesn’t like it when we have a day off.
“He likes to be in training sessions. He still can be better.”
