When Phil Foden collected the ball on the edge of the box at Selhurst Park with a clear sight of goal in the 69th minute of last weekend’s clash with Crystal Palace, most watching knew exactly what would happen next. After steadying himself with a touch, Foden’s precise effort beat Dean Henderson’s outstretched arm, and the 25-year-old scored for a fourth consecutive Premier League game—equalling his best-ever run in the competition.
Only once before, in January 2025, had Phil Foden previously scored in four straight league appearances, and he now has the opportunity to break his personal record in Saturday’s home encounter with West Ham United. With seven goals and two assists already this season, he’s matched his entire Premier League goal involvement total from last campaign despite playing half the number of matches.
The transformation has been remarkable. After a forgettable Euro 2024 and a difficult 2024-25 season that saw Manchester City surrender their title, Phil Foden is not just back to his best—he might be better than ever, thanks to a tactical repositioning by Pep Guardiola that has taken him full circle to where his journey began.
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The Numbers Tell a Remarkable Story
Phil Foden’s statistical resurgence at Man City this season is nothing short of extraordinary. With seven goals and two assists, he has already equaled last season’s total of nine Premier League goal involvements in just 14 matches compared to 28. Across all competitions, Foden has surpassed last season’s tally of 15 goal involvements with 18 (13 goals and 5 assists) despite playing 19 fewer games.
| Phil Foden Season Comparison | 2024-25 | 2025-26 |
|---|---|---|
| Premier League Matches | 28 | 14 |
| Goals | 7 | 7 |
| Assists | 2 | 2 |
| Goal Involvements | 9 | 9 |
| All Competitions Goal Involvements | 15 | 18 |
| Minutes Played (All Comps) | 2,844 | 2,202 |
His goal against Palace was his 12th from outside the box in his Premier League career, and his eighth since the start of 2023-24. During this period, no player has netted more goals from distance in the Premier League, while only Kylian Mbappé (18) has exceeded his tally (13) in all competitions among players at clubs in Europe’s top five leagues.
Despite this clinical display, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola still found room for criticism after the Palace victory, telling BBC’s Match of the Day: “Today he didn’t do a good game, he didn’t play good. He lost a lot of balls, so in a rush in every action. Phil has to be more tempo, more calm, keep the ball, pass – and in the right moment, change gear. In the right moment, make the explosion.”
Criticism from one of football’s most demanding perfectionists is hardly surprising, but it reinforces the narrative that whatever Phil Foden accomplishes, it never seems quite enough for some observers.
Career Trajectory and Premier League Excellence
Undoubtedly one of English football’s most exciting talents, Phil Foden already boasts 98 goal involvements across his Premier League career (68 goals, 30 assists). With five months until his 26th birthday at the end of May 2026, there’s minimal doubt he’ll become just the 20th different player to achieve a century of goal involvements in the competition before turning 26.
Sixty-one of those goal contributions have materialized across the last four seasons, placing him eighth in Premier League rankings during that timeframe. When examining his output on a minutes-per-goal-involvement basis, however, he ranks fifth among the 14 players with at least 50 Premier League goals since 2022-23 (125 minutes), fractionally more frequent than Bukayo Saka (126 minutes).
Phil Foden appears to be hitting his stride at the perfect moment, not only for Man City but potentially for England as well. Six months ago, few would have selected Foden for England’s 2026 FIFA World Cup squad ahead of the numerous talented players capable of operating off Harry Kane. But after four months of exceptional club form, he might just be fighting his way back into contention.
The Struggles of 2024: Euro Disappointment and Club Difficulties
Ahead of Euro 2024, Phil Foden enjoyed his finest season of club football at Manchester City, posting career-high goal (19) and assist (8) tallies in the Premier League. His sensational 39 goal involvements in 53 appearances across all competitions represented 13 more than he’d managed in any of his previous six professional seasons at the club.
| Phil Foden 2023-24 Achievements | Details |
|---|---|
| Premier League Goals | 19 (career high) |
| Premier League Assists | 8 (career high) |
| All Competitions Goal Involvements | 39 |
| Awards | PL Player of Season, FWA Footballer of Year, PFA Players’ Player of Year |
| Team Achievement | Fourth successive Premier League title |
He was Man City’s standout star en route to a record-breaking fourth consecutive Premier League title and collected the Premier League Player of the Season, FWA Footballer of the Year, and PFA Players’ Player of the Year awards.
The expectation was that Phil Foden would follow this brilliance by playing a pivotal role in England’s quest to win their first major men’s trophy since the 1966 World Cup. Despite starting all seven matches at Euro 2024 and playing 86% of possible minutes, he failed to make an impact for Gareth Southgate’s side.
To encapsulate Foden’s ineffectual displays at the tournament, he completed as many passes to goalkeeper Jordan Pickford as he did to Harry Kane (5) in seven matches. He posted zero goals or assists despite attempting the second-most shots (13) and recording the third-most chances created (6) for England at the finals. Only France’s Ousmane Dembélé (22) totaled more shot involvements without a goal or assist than Foden (19) at Euro 2024.
While Dembélé used that disappointment as fuel to power him to a sensational Ballon d’Or-winning campaign in 2024-25, Phil Foden struggled at club level the season following his forgettable European Championship performances.
It’s no coincidence that Manchester City failed to extend their title-winning streak to five consecutive seasons in a campaign where Foden suffered personally. Injuries, illness, and off-field issues saw him miss 12 of City’s 57 competitive games before the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. He played just 2,844 minutes, ranking only ninth in the Man City squad for time on the pitch, after accumulating the second-most minutes for the club in 2023-24 (4,270).
Man City were severely affected by Rodri’s long-term injury that kept the influential midfielder out for nearly the entire season, eventually finishing 13 points behind champions Liverpool and even trailing Arsenal after four years of dominance. A woeful run between November and early March saw City lose nine of 19 Premier League matches—unfortunately for Foden, he started all nine defeats. His attachment to City’s poor form was strengthened by the fact they won nine of the 10 league matches he played no part in last season (D1). To some outsiders, it appeared Phil Foden was part of the problem.
The Tactical Revolution: Foden’s Return to His Roots
In 2025-26, Phil Foden has been deployed in a significantly deeper position than observers have grown accustomed to seeing under Guardiola. Operating on the left side of a midfield three in a 4-3-3 formation, Foden’s role now allows him to find more possession and play a more substantial part in building Man City’s attacks rather than solely creating or finishing them.
Across all competitions, 77% of his playing time has been spent deeper in central midfield this season. Last campaign, he occupied that role for just 24% of his minutes, and it represented less than 10% in each of the three previous seasons.
Phil Foden’s positioning at Manchester City has come full circle. This was precisely his role in his breakthrough season of 2018-19, when he played all 1,112 minutes across all competitions in a number 8 position in a 4-3-3 as City secured the domestic treble. As Guardiola himself stated last month: “This season is the Phil we met a long, long time ago.”
Statistical Evidence of the Deeper Role
Playing deeper means Phil Foden is receiving possession considerably more inside his own half, trusted to fulfill more of a facilitator role in the build-up to attacks. Excluding 2017-18 and 2018-19 when he played minimal Premier League minutes (45 and 329 respectively), Foden is averaging the second-highest number of successful passes per 90 in a Premier League season (46.2), behind only his exceptional 2023-24 campaign (46.7).
His average of 17.5 successful passes inside his own half per 90 represents the highest ever in a season for him, while he’s completing just 13.7 per 90 ending in the final third—by far his lowest average in a Premier League campaign, five fewer per 90 than last season and seven fewer per 90 than in 2023-24.
| Phil Foden Positional Statistics | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Touches in Defensive Half (%) | 22.2% | 20.8% | 33.9% |
| Successful Passes per 90 | 46.7 | N/A | 46.2 |
| Passes in Own Half per 90 | N/A | 12.5 | 17.5 |
| Passes in Final Third per 90 | 20.7 | 18.7 | 13.7 |
| Touches in Defensive Half (Total) | N/A | 253 | 301 |
This season has witnessed him record 33.9% of his touches in the defensive half—his highest proportion ever in a season and substantially higher than last season (20.8%) and his most impressive campaign in 2023-24 (22.2%). Remarkably, he’s already accumulated more touches in the defensive half this season (301) than last season (253) despite playing 642 fewer minutes.
Although clearly adept at carrying the ball, it’s no longer as crucial for Phil Foden to do so for Man City—they possess other players to fulfill that function. His per-90 averages for carries (11.1), carry distance (104.6m), progressive carries (4.9), and progressive carry distance (44.5m) are all career lows in the Premier League this season.
Foden is executing fewer progressive passes—completed open-play passes in the attacking two-thirds that move the ball at least 25% closer to goal—on average than ever before in a Premier League season (2.3), but the average distance of those passes (18.3m) is three meters further than in any previous league campaign.
His average of 3.6 long balls per 90 in open play is 1.0 higher than in any previous Premier League seasons, with Manchester City’s willingness to play more directly in 2025-26 a significant factor. Foden’s passing range is exceptional, so why not utilize it to penetrate opposition defenses from deeper positions?
Manchester City’s Stylistic Evolution
This represents a different Man City side to what observers have grown accustomed to witnessing under Guardiola. No longer do they completely rely on suffocating opponents with extreme amounts of possession, but they have begun to exploit the pace of players like Jérémy Doku, Rayan Cherki, and Erling Haaland on the counterattack.
| Man City Style Metrics Under Guardiola | Previous Seasons | 2025-26 |
|---|---|---|
| Average Possession | Higher | 57.4% (lowest ever) |
| Open-Play 10+ Pass Sequences | Higher | 483 (fewest ever) |
| Fast Break Shots per Game | Previous high: 0.65 | 1.3 (double previous best) |
They’re averaging the lowest possession (57.4%) and fewest open-play sequences of 10+ passes (483) than ever before in a season since Guardiola assumed control in 2016-17, while they are averaging twice as many shots from fast breaks per game (1.3) than in any previous campaign under him.
Maintaining Goal Threat from Deeper Positions
“He’s one of the best players we have in small spaces in the final third, by far,” Guardiola claimed in early October. “In terms of assists and in terms of goals in small spaces, how he times an attack and the desire to score a goal is the best we have.”
Playing deeper hasn’t diminished Phil Foden’s ability to influence attacks and score goals. As previously mentioned, he’s equaled last season’s Premier League goal tally (7) before Christmas, but critically, he’s making runs into the penalty area to create strong scoring opportunities.
Foden’s phenomenal engine facilitates this. No player who has logged at least 800 minutes of Premier League action this season has covered as much ground as he has (12.3km per 90), and only Matheus Nunes (19.5) and Nico O’Reilly (18.5) average more sprints per 90 among Man City players than Foden (18.2).
Despite averaging fewer touches in the opposition box than ever before in a league season (3.5), Phil Foden is averaging superior quality shots this season (0.124 xG per shot) than in both 2024-25 (0.096) and his excellent 2023-24 campaign (0.099). That substantially explains why his goal tally remains impressive despite being deployed deeper by Guardiola, with Foden’s incredible work-rate enabling him to discover pockets of space with late runs into the box to support attacks.
Exceptional Technique Under Pressure
His ability to operate in tight spaces also means Phil Foden can impact Man City despite being under constant pressure from opponents. Foden consistently plays on the half-turn in midfield, demonstrating complete awareness and unprincipled control.
| Passing Under High Pressure (2025-26) | Player | Pass Completion % |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Curtis Jones (Liverpool) | 89.4% |
| 2nd | Moisés Caicedo (Chelsea) | 87.0% |
| 3rd | Phil Foden (Man City) | 86.8% |
Among midfielders and forwards who have attempted at least 500 passes this season in the Premier League, only Liverpool’s Curtis Jones (89.4%) and Chelsea’s Moisés Caicedo (87.0%) possess a higher pass completion rate when under high pressure from opponents than Phil Foden (86.8%).
Opponents recognize the threat Foden poses—no Man City player has been required to make a higher proportion of their passes under high pressure than Foden (57.7%) in 2025-26, yet he maintains exceptional composure and precision.
World Cup Aspirations and England’s Dilemma
Phil Foden will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in Manchester City’s attempts to chase down Arsenal and secure the Premier League title in the second half of the season, but it would be naïve to think he won’t have an eye on impressing Thomas Tuchel enough to work his way back into the England fold.
His call-up to the squad for November World Cup qualifying dead rubbers against Albania and Serbia saw him return after missing Tuchel’s three previous squads in June, September, and October. However, Foden has played just 150 of a possible 990 minutes under Tuchel since the German’s first game in charge in March, settling for two substitute appearances totaling only 53 minutes across the two November qualifiers where England had nothing to play for.
He accumulated more minutes in the knockout stages of Euro 2024 (374) than he has in the Three Lions’ 16 internationals since (232 of a possible 1,440). Tournament football requires players who can display versatility, and England can only select 26 players for the World Cup next summer.
Phil Foden has demonstrated he’s adept in multiple positions across midfield—something arguably not the case for many rivals such as Morgan Rogers, Jarrod Bowen, Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke, and Anthony Gordon, stars who have played more minutes under Tuchel than Foden, with the exception of Palmer who’s spent time injured in 2025-26.
Should Phil Foden maintain his form for the remainder of the season, his obvious quality and improved performances might prove too substantial for Tuchel to ignore.
Looking Ahead
Phil Foden’s transformation from struggling fringe player to indispensable midfielder represents one of the Premier League’s most compelling narratives this season. His deeper role at Man City has not only revitalized his club career but potentially salvaged his international prospects ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
The 25-year-old has rediscovered the enthusiasm, intelligence, and technical excellence that characterized his breakthrough years, now enhanced by maturity and tactical understanding. As Guardiola noted, this is “the Phil we met a long, long time ago”—but with added experience and refinement.
With the chance to break his personal record of four consecutive scoring games against West Ham on Saturday and a Premier League title race heating up, Phil Foden’s journey from disappointment to redemption is far from complete. But one thing is certain: Manchester City’s decision to reinvent his role has unlocked a version of the player that might surpass even his extraordinary 2023-24 heights.
Read More: Why Hugo Ekitiké Deserves to Be Liverpool’s First-Choice Striker Over Alexander Isak
FAQs
What is Phil Foden’s current scoring streak?
Phil Foden has scored in four consecutive Premier League games, equaling his best-ever run from January 2025. He faces West Ham on Saturday with the chance to break this personal record.
How has Foden’s role changed at Manchester City this season?
Foden now plays deeper in central midfield on the left of a 4-3-3, spending 77% of his time there versus only 24% last season. This mirrors his breakthrough 2018-19 position when City won the domestic treble.
What are Foden’s key statistics this season compared to last?
Foden has matched last season’s nine Premier League goal involvements in 14 games versus 28 (7 goals, 2 assists each). In all competitions, he’s exceeded last season’s 15 goal involvements with 18 despite playing 19 fewer games.
How has playing deeper affected Foden’s goal-scoring ability?
Despite fewer touches in the opposition box (3.5 per 90), Foden takes higher quality shots (0.124 xG per shot) than in 2024-25 or 2023-24. His elite work-rate (12.3km per 90, highest in PL) enables late runs into the box to support attacks.
What are Foden’s chances of making England’s 2026 World Cup squad?
Foden has played only 232 of 1,440 possible minutes in England’s last 16 matches under Thomas Tuchel. However, his exceptional club form and tactical versatility (multiple midfield positions) could force reconsideration if he maintains current performance levels.
