🦁 Premier League Player of the Week: The next level | OneFootball

We’ve now seen two matchdays of the 2023/24 Premier League season, and there were some excellent performances across the weekend.

But there can only be one Player of the Week …

Phil Foden (Manchester City)

Last season was a disappointing one by Phil Foden’s standards. For the first time in the 23-year-old’s short career, it felt like his perpetually upward trajectory had begun to flatten out.

The season wasn’t without its highlights of course, with a hat-trick in the Manchester derby a standout moment, but after he’d been used sparingly by England at the World Cup, Foden returned to his club and struggled to nail down a settled place in the starting line-up.

Injuries and an unfortunate bout of appendicitis certainly didn’t help as Jack Grealish making City’s left wing his own meant Foden’s options were limited. It was a frustrating stop-start campaign for one of English football’s most promising young stars.

And then came the Champions League final in Istanbul, and an injury to Kevin De Bruyne in the first half. Foden came off the bench to replace the Belgian and was given a rare outing in a central midfield position.

Then, later in the second half he provided one of the game’s few moments of top quality when he received a pass on the half turn and pirouetted brilliantly past Inter’s Federico Dimarco to bear down on goal. He should have done better with the finish, but it was tantalising glimpse of things to come.

On Saturday evening, City welcomed Newcastle United to the Etihad Stadium and with De Bruyne now ruled out for up to five months with a hamstring injury, Foden was given another chance to prove himself to manager Pep Guardiola from a central midfield position. And didn’t he grab it with both hands.

Foden caused havoc all evening, constantly drifting into the pockets of space between Newcastle’s midfield and defence and making himself almost impossible to man mark.

His ability to receive passes on the half turn and almost unconsciously spin past defenders was a sight to behold, and it was one such action which created the game’s only goal, when Mateo Kovačić found the Englishman with a smart pass, and after a perfect touch took him away from Newcastle’s Dan Burn, he slipped it through for Julián Álvarez to smash into the top corner.

It was one of seven chances created by Foden in the match, to add to the two he created against Burnley the previous. That puts him level with Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma at the top of the Premier League chances created chart so far this term.

The season is still in its infancy, but Foden couldn’t have done much more to prove that he’s a worthy replacement for De Bruyne in that central position, and he has the skillset to be one of the world’s best.

He still has plenty to learn but at 23, he also still has bags of time on his hands. After a disappointing season last year, 2023/24 could be Foden’s time to truly step up to the next level.