“SO MUCH has been said about Erling Haaland’s unswerving commitment with a ten-year contract at Manchester City. The visiting fans at Portman Road even sang loudly about it as their celebrated striker rolled home his first goal since signing a monstrous contract that runs until 2035. 6 Erling Haaland celebrated his lucrative new deal with”, — write: www.thesun.co.uk
The visiting fans at Portman Road even sang loudly about it as their celebrated striker rolled home his first goal since signing a monstrous contract that runs until 2035.
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Erling Haaland celebrated his lucrative new deal with a goalCredit: AP
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Phil Foden is back in form and scored twiceCredit: PA
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It was an afternoon to forget for IpswichCredit: GettyYet the undoubtedly talented Norwegian is a relative newcomer compared to Phil Foden, who has already clocked up twice that length of service and exhibited yet again why he is such a key player.
Smaller in stature than 6ft5 Haaland and like everyone else he has to live in his team-mate’s shadow.
Both men were subbed at the same time with the score at 5-0 and the job done just after the hour mark. The City supporters sang Haaland’s name but not Foden’s as they both trotted off.
But in a game that pitted men against Tractor Boys at Portman Road, it was lil’ Phil who started the engine with two goals in the first half and the assist for another which had the result wrapped up inside a 15-minute blitz.
Foden is 24 now and joined City aged four. Nobody at the club knows better than him when to dig in and get them out of a sticky patch.
He put his side two up at Brentford last Tuesday, only to see his defence blow it at the death and chuck two points away.
But he was bang up for it again on a freezing afternoon in Suffolk when Pep Guardiola’s team took its time warming up.
Haaland was put clean through after 15 minutes but tamely hit a half-hearted shot that Town keeper Christian Walton patted away easily. Mateo Kovacic blasted over a minute later.
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It was then that Foden in combination with Jeremny Doku took control and did the business with devastating effect to seal the win by the break, paving the way for the exhibition stuff afterwards.
First came a weighted switch pass from right to left with Doku finding Kevin De Bruyne running into the box.
Foden arrived in the area and took a touch from De Bruyne’s pass and casually rolled home the opening goal.
Again down Town’s left, Doku caused mischief, finding Foden on the edge of the area. He in turn fed Kovacic who this time showed a more clinical side and scored with a drilled shot.
Ipswich’s gutsy game nature is one of their big assets in a tough season for them in the Premier League. Awareness clearly isn’t one of their strengths.
For a third time, Doku, Foden and De Bruyne rampaged around the box with Foden openly calling for the ball with nobody from the home team taking a blind bit of notice before he hit number three in a similar fashion to his first.
There is delight in the City camp at Haaland’s loyalty to City when the future off the pitch is uncertain and on it their title defence looks lost. There is also concern that the squad has been allowed to grow old.
New signings are coming in with striker Omar Mamoush and defenders Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis on their way. But none were in the matchday squad.
So to see two young ‘uns in Foden,24, and Doku, 22, put on a show, allowed the supposed OAPs in Guardiola’s squad to take a breather.
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Doku earned the reward for his ingenuity and industry in the first half by scoring four minutes into the second half.
Any ideas Ipswich had of regrouping after a half-time cuppa were firmly squashed as the winger again zeroed in on goal from the left, turned Ben Godfrey then hit a shot that did take a deflection off Dara O’Shea to wrong foot Walton.
But by then it was containment at best for poor Ipswich.
Always up against it here, this sort of collapse may well have serious collateral damage for the important weeks to come if they want to even engage in a survival battle.
Boss Kieran McKenna has to get his message across better, because on 57 minutes Haaland was fed from the left again and simply chipped over Walton for number five before coming off a few moments later.
Guardiola was allowed the luxury of taking off his top striker and best player with almost half an hour to go, presumably to rest them for the Champions League game against Paris St.Germain on Wednesday.
Salford’s James McAtee headed in number six to complete the perfect day for City which started with applause for the late Denis Law – a legend for rivals Manchester United who played for the Sky Blues twice during his career.