Private chat with 'aggressive' Foden

Pep full of praise for attitude of midfielder

- JOE BRAY

PEP Guardiola praised Phil Foden’s aggression and opened up on a private chat he had with the youngster after he helped City beat Newcastle in the Premier League.

City welcomed an out-of-sorts Newcastle side still reeling from their Carabao Cup defeat last week, but were still the Premier League’s best defence and had caused City plenty of problems in the reverse fixture at the start of the season.

However, City put in a professional performance and scored at the right times through Foden and Bernardo Silva to record an important victory and keep Arsenal on their toes in the title race.

Foden’s goal made it four goals in his last three appearances, and the winger is close to being back to his best for City.

After starring at Bristol City in the week, Foden admitted his spell on the sidelines and out of the team recently was the hardest part of his career to date, but Guardiola said he told Foden to keep his head up and learn to expect such difficult spells.