Man City find key to success without Erling Haaland in ominous Premier League title warning to Arsenal | OneFootball

No Erling Haaland, no problem — not when you have Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden at your disposal.

Just when Arsenal fans were getting excited that they could be about to end their 20-year wait to win the title, this was a ruthless reminder from Manchester City as to why they are favourites to win the Premier League.

Pep Guardiola's side dismantled Brighton 4-0 to close the gap on Mikel Arteta's table-toppers to one point and, crucially, they have a game in hand.

It is now 18 league matches in a row without defeat for City, with December 6 the last time they tasted defeat, and on the evidence of last night they are showing no signs of slowing down.

This win will certainly fill City with confidence that they can claim a record-breaking fourth title in a row, because they did it without Haaland.

The striker, who is the Premier League's joint top scorer this season, missed last night's game with a muscle issue and is a doubt for Sunday's game at Nottingham Forest. In his absence, it was left to De Bruyne and Foden to fire City to victory, with the pair in devastating form last night.

This was only the seventh league game this season they have started together and it has been debated how you fit them both in the same side.

For so long, De Bruyne has been City's No10, but in his absence this season due to injuries, Foden has stepped up.

Guardiola's solution last night was to allow both playmakers the chance to roam centrally and Brighton had no answer on how to stop them.

De Bruyne opened the scoring with a looping header after 17 minutes. Before half-time, Foden had scored a free-kick and slotted a third. By the time Julian Alvarez added a fourth midway through the second half, the game was well and truly dead.

Foden has now scored 24 goals and laid on 10 assists, making it the best season of his career.

"This year he went up a level," said De Bruyne. "Now, Phil gets trusted to play centrally. Even today we didn't play with any wingers, so we both played a little centrally and had to go on the wings sometimes.

"I saw Phil from the beginning and he was always a No10. It's sometimes hard to understand everything you need to do in a Pep Guardiola team — it's the structure, a lot of tactical training sessions. He will end up centrally."

Phil Foden has played a starring role for Man City this season

AP

Foden is clearly the heir to De Bruyne's throne at City, but in the meantime the pair could form a lethal partnership. Few players deliver such as De Bruyne in the big moments, and it feels inevitable the 32-year-old will have a vital role to play in this run-in, despite having an injury-hit season.

"When he's at it, he's the best player in the Premier League," said Foden. "He sees passes that other players don't.

"It helps my game to be playing with him in midfield. You just have to run into the space and he's going to find you. It's nice I'm playing inside with him now and hopefully I can keep playing with him, because it's good for the team. Playing with the best players in the world, like Kev, helps my game."

After brushing aside Brighton, City will now turn their attention to Forest on Sunday. It is the first of what look like five winnable games, but Guardiola will not allow complacency to creep in after seeing Liverpool lose at Everton.

"What happened to Liverpool can happen to us and Arsenal," he said. "What we've done in the past doesn't mean it will happen in the future.