Kevin De Bruyne believes Manchester City are heading in the right direction | OneFootball

Kevin De Bruyne feels Manchester City are getting back on the right track after securing back-to-back Premier League victories for the first time in three months.

The Belgian playmaker also feels his form and fitness is returning after a first half of the season marred by injury.

City have endured a difficult campaign after a run of nine defeats in 13 games across all competitions late in 2024, but Saturday’s 4-1 defeat of West Ham brought a brighter start to the new year.

Coming after a hard-earned win at Leicester last week, some of the tension at the Etihad Stadium has eased and De Bruyne feels the champions now have something to build on.

“I think it was better than the game at Leicester,” said De Bruyne, whose outing was his 400th for the club. “I think we had some good moments, some moments a bit less and I think, in the end, we lost a bit of rhythm, energy.

“But to win the first game of ’25 is good. I think it feels some players are getting back physically and hopefully it gets better.

“Obviously, it’s been a difficult season for many, many reasons, but I think we’re getting a bit better.”

De Bruyne has had his own personal frustrations having taken time to regain match fitness since a two-month lay-off with a pelvic problem in the autumn.

The 33-year-old added: “I can look at myself to be physically better and I’m starting to feel a bit better. That’s the only thing I can do.”

Despite the scoreline, City did not have things their own way against the Hammers. Mohammed Kudus and Tomas Soucek both spurned gilt-edged chances before Savinho forced the opening goal via a deflection off Vladimir Coufal.

They then had another let-off when Crysencio Summerville was harshly penalised for a foul when clean through but a double from Erling Haaland – both created by Savinho – followed by a Phil Foden strike secured victory.

De Bruyne teed up Foden’s goal after seizing on some sloppy West Ham passing but the veteran admitted 20-year-old winger Savinho was the real star.

He said of the Brazilian: “He had a lot of moments where he did really well. Lately it seems like he’s found confidence again. Scoring last week can help and he had a really good performance.”

Coming after last week’s 5-0 thrashing by Liverpool, it was another tough afternoon for the Hammers and their under-fire manager Julen Lopetegui, who were without captain Jarrod Bowen through injury.

Stand-in skipper Soucek told the club’s website: “It is a sad day for us because we had a couple of chances to go ahead and then we conceded a deflected goal, so that was a unlucky moment for us.

“We had a game plan, how we wanted to play, how we wanted to show ourselves and I think we tried to play with the ball a lot.

“We created the chances, so it was good at the start and even in the second half we played very well in many minutes but, at the end, we conceded four goals and that just can’t happen.

“But the number of shots we had is positive. We played Manchester City away. It’s always one of the hardest games and we have to take some positivity.”