Gliding technician Foden a throwback to Guardiola's original template

At times during the opening hour of the Manchester derby it might have seemed to a casual observer that Phil Foden had walked on to the pitch with a handler in tow; perhaps some tolerant elderly relative, there to stand close but not really that close, to chase dutifully, prepared to let him show off his twinkly footwork, like some weary Sunday morning dad scrolling his phone in the park.

In the event this turned out to be Victor Lindelöf, Manchester United’s stand-in left-back, who did his best to track and chase and non-specifically hinder Manchester City’s outstanding attacker in what was ultimately a neck-crickingly one-sided 3-1 victory. This was a thankless security detail. Even with United’s deep-set midfield filling the spaces, Lindelöf simply didn’t have the physical capacity to stop this full-bore, mid-season version of Foden, who is just a different style of human, his feet moving too quickly, the tendons set to a different level of twang.

Perhaps Erik Ten Hag might have acted earlier, done more to cover an outmatched duel. But Lindelöf was still out there on his own on 56 minutes, present but not exactly involved, as Foden took the ball from Rodri, a little further inside, the space starting to yawn and become simply too much, leaving Foden time to produce out of the most tightly pressed of moments, the perfect curving dipping shot into the top corner, hit with a beautiful ping straight out of the sweet spot. It was an act of extreme hard-honed craft and skill, executed in the tightest of spaces, 1-0 down, and with City at that stage struggling a little with the deep swamp-defence of United’s back nine.

Marcus Rashford had given United the lead in the fifth minute with his only real contribution to the game;