Recharged Kevin De Bruyne energises Manchester City’s four-peat bid Premium

Kevin De Bruyne's return to Manchester City has had a significant impact on their performance and title race.

When Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was asked early this year if his side was the favourite to win the Premier League this season, the German spoke about how tight it was at the top. He talked up the qualities of the contenders, building to a punchline about the most dominant team in England football’s recent history — a side that has so often thwarted the Reds, Manchester City. “Kevin De Bruyne is warming up,” Klopp said. “The whole country is starting to shake.”

The line was delivered with humour, but many a true word is spoken in jest. De Bruyne had been sidelined after aggravating a hamstring injury during City’s Premier League opener in August. It was the same problem that forced the 32-year-old to be substituted during the Champions League final win against Inter Milan last June. 

Without De Bruyne — he missed 27 games across competitions — City looked beatable. The depth and quality of the squad ensured there were no major alarms, but it was clear that the reigning champion needed him back as the season entered its most hectic, decisive phase.

And it took De Bruyne less than five minutes to prove his value and the truth in Klopp’s words — five months after having surgery, he came off the bench to score the equaliser and set up an injury-time winner at Newcastle. 

With City trailing 2-1 and Pep Guardiola’s team struggling to find the bit of quality needed to break down the host’s defence, De Bruyne turned the game around with two perfect touches of his right foot. A pinpoint side-footed finish just inside the near post was the first. A supremely weighted ball, lifted into the box for substitute Oscar Bobb to score his first Premier League goal, was the second. It seemed as if he had never been away.

“I missed this,” De Bruyne said. “I think it was more willpower than anything else. It was crazy.” That display of game-changing genius at St. James’ Park came in the second week of January. More recently, making a second straight start after the long injury layoff on Monday, De Bruyne was threatening against a well-drilled Brentford side that had taken the lead. Phil Foden cornered the limelight for his hat-trick in the 3-1 victory, but De Bruyne was City’s agent of chaos.

It was his dangerous cross that Ethan Pinnock headed straight into the path of Foden for the equaliser. An inch-precise delivery then picked out Foden’s head for the second goal, illustrating the Belgian’s impact. As Guardiola said, “When Kevin has the ball and we have runners, Kevin is unique in the world. He is a really important player for us, not only in the past but in the present.”