Pep Guardiola said Phil Foden is playing his “best season” after his hat-trick inspired Manchester City to a 3-1 come-from-behind away win against Brentford.
The Gtech Community Stadium was treated to a masterclass from the England international, as he recorded the second hat-trick of his career, moving to double-digit goals in all competitions.
A win moved City back into the top two and if they win on Saturday lunchtime against relegation-threatened Everton, they can move back to the top of the Premier League. With Champions League and FA Cup hopes very much still alive, the odds of back-to-back trebles look to be getting more and more likely as time goes on, as City approach their "killer bee" status in the crunch part of the season.
It seemed for a lot of the first half that this could be one of those days for the reigning Premier League champions as they went 1-0 down after a goal from Neal Maupay and goalkeeper Mark Flekken made an Opta stats record nine first-half saves. However, Foden and City cracked the code in stoppage time and were in the lead before the hour mark.
When asked about the performance, Guardiola was in high praise of both sides. He said: “A really tough game. Every free kick, when they link with (Ivan) Toney, it’s unstoppable but with everything we played a really good game, the keeper was excellent in the first half.”
Guardiola was then asked about Foden’s performance after a man-of-the-match performance. He said: “I don’t know how many games already for Man City, and there’s a guy who can play in different positions. After when they defend deep , they are so deep , the spaces are so difficult. The first especially and the third one as well, he’s a guy at the centre of goal, he loves to move around the 18-yard box. I think he is playing his best season since we are together."
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Frank: ‘We did so many things right’
The hosts languish into 15th place with yet another defeat. The club started the season in fine form and it seemed that they would not miss Toney at all. However, their form soon dipped and they hit a bad slump.
Manager Thomas Frank will feel confident of survival with Toney back and how they performed in tonight’s game. He said: "I think overall, a good performance. I think first half, I felt we defended well. I think we limited them to shots outside the box, except the goal that we gave them. It’s a bad pass from us. We did so many things right, they defended so well the boys, it’s a minor mistake for the goal.
“The second half we continue, we talked a lot about closing down (Kevin) De Bruyne, he made one precise pass and made it 2-1. Those two goals were the difference. The chance to Ivan, these are the moments we want to beat the best team in the world.
“Of course, it’s difficult no matter how you do against City. We did a lot of things right, it’s the key moments where we didn’t have the quality and they showed their tremendous quality."