It’s January 13, and Kevin De Bruyne has finally played more than 90 minutes across all competitions. Saturday’s 21 minutes off the bench at Newcastle takes him to 103 minutes this season.
And as of January 13 and his goal and an assist for City at St. James’ Park, he’s got a goal and three assists.
That’s some efficiency.
[ MORE: Man City come back, top Newcastle 3-2 ]
It says something that De Bruyne’s incredible shift, barely more than a cameo, had the game’s match-winner actually thanking the Belgian playmaker for his pass despite a first career Premier League goal that any player would relish as special.
“I said thank you to him after,” Bobb said after the game. “He’s the only one in the world who could do that so to play with him is great. Not only one of the greatest players in the Premier League. He’s also like a very nice guy, helps the young lads a lot. He’s one of our captains so he definitely helps strengthen the team.”
De Bruyne took the lid off Newcastle’s defense and Bobb’s quick feet helped put the matter to rest, boosting Man City into second place on the Premier League table before ‘KDB’ has started a match beyond Week 1.
De Bruyne return makes Man City vintage venomous
Sure there’s an element of a 20-year-old player talking to his Ballon d’Or caliber captain here, but it’s difficult to look at City’s comeback win at Newcastle and not have an air of gratitude in multiple ways.
For one thing, there’s the thanks football fans have for seeing the very best players do the very best things, but there’s also this: Perhaps we should be grateful that he wasn’t available to City while no other Premier League team seized the day during their relative struggles.
City’s two points back of Liverpool after 20 matches. Liverpool’s current pace is 85.5 points. 86 points would’ve been three points off City last season. It would’ve tied City in 2020-21. It wouldn’t have been anywhere near the crown in any other season since Leicester’s miracle run of 2015-16.
We wouldn’t bet on 86 being enough this go around.
“I missed this,” De Bruyne said after his emotional response to leading the comeback. “It is what it is, I had a big injury and I needed the time. I enjoyed myself. I think it was more willpower than anything else. It was crazy. I know I’m not able to do that for 90 minutes at the moment. I can put in a shift for 30 minutes at the moment. I feel it in my lungs, especially with the cold.”
As for the experience, and the intense feel at St. James’ Park?
“Everyone was really happy for me,” De Bruyne said. “We want to try and compete for the league again. We are up there. It was a tough game.”
That happens when your world-class center forward’s been out a month and you’re away to a good team. But De Bruyne’s introduction changed everything.
Will anyone keep Man City from top of Premier League table?
The Club World Cup Final win over Fluminense was a different test for City, on a different continental against South American competition, but Saturday’s trip to Newcastle was a bigger test for the rebounding champions.
City left for Saudi Arabia on an unusually poor run of results — 3W-4D-1L. Pep’s men had won all three matches since returning home, but that was Everton, Sheffield United, and an FA Cup tie at home to Huddersfield Town. This was a fellow Champions League side at St. James’ Park.
City trailed 2-1 at half and lost its star keeper Ederson to injury. and had produced just 0.91 xG off of 69% possession. That’s good for a lot of teams, but something was missing. And it wasn’t spunk. Rodri alone looked ready to fight the world.
Enter KDB. The second half tune was sunk in a very City key. They collected 76% possession and 1.94 xG over that 45 minutes to finish the game with a 27-12 shot attempts advantage with 11 of those going on goal.
That’s City with KDB. And they may just be inevitable.
“I am a little bit upset and grumpy with him because he didn’t score from the free kick,” Guardiola said after the game. “When opponents are more tired, Kevin and Oscar provide another pace at the end. ... When Kevin has the ball and we have runners, Kevin is unique in the world but the finish by Oscar, I am so, so happy for him.”
City is still conceding goals, and that’s gotta get cleaned up even if Ederson joins John Stones in missing time. But Saturday’s City looks capable of out-scoring everyone, and we’d expect the advanced stats to start to look more like the City we’ve seen win almost everything the past few seasons.
Next up? Spurs in the FA Cup and then Burnley, Brentford, and Everton again. In that same time in the Premier League, Liverpool hosts Chelsea and goes to Arsenal, who itself has a West Ham test. Villa has Newcastle and Manchester United.
Would you be surprised if City was in first to stay by mid-February?
