symbol 02:00 02:00 The 24 year old grabbed two first half goals, with an assist for Mateo Kovacic in between, to give City a comfortable edge at the midway mark of the match against the Tractor Boys.
Jeremy Doku, Erling Haaland and James McAtee completed the rout in the second half to give City a well deserved three points and subject Ipswich to a humiliating loss. Here are three things we learned when City ran riot against Ipswich:
Even by today’s standards, they got off to a bad start. More dropped points from City were likely, and Ipswich was, in my judgment, the superior team. But after a fantastic build-up down the left side, Foden’s goal—finished off like the Foden from the previous season—set City on their way, and they didn’t turn back. Ederson was really effective at the back, pinging the ball around and making a few solid saves.
Although Josko Gvardiol and Matheus Nunes are technically playing out of position at full back, they both appeared at ease and adapted. It was wonderful to see Ruben Dias again, and it’s no accident that Manuel Akanji was there.
Erling Haaland has found his shooting boots again, Phil Foden and Kevin de Bruyne are returning to their best up front, and Jeremy Doku is making a strong case to start games on the left side despite competition from Jack Grealish, Savinho, soon-to-be Oscar Bobb, and Omar Marmoush.
They have demonstrated that City can still compete at the highest level when they are confident and have more players in good form.
Even though it was just Ipswich, the performance was unquestionably better than anything we’ve seen this season and is very reassuring to see ahead of the upcoming challenging stretch. With three players coming in—Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, and Douglas Luiz, an alternative midfielder, and possibly two more—City is well-positioned to secure a top four finish and rebuild in the summer in order to compete for the league title the following year.
City can only realistically operate with four players in attack, and choosing that quartet will be a difficult job for Pep Guardiola.
Haaland is nailed on, as are De Bruyne and Foden when they’re fully fit. But that leaves one more space to be battled out by as many as six players. If Doku carries on the way he has in City’s last two games against Ipswich and Salford City, he’ll keep his place, but Savinho is also in a rich vein of form too.
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