Phil Foden admits his on-field relationship with Erling Haaland is improving after Norwegian's brace in win against Everton

Manchester City jumped to the top of the Premier League table with a 2-0 victory over Everton on Saturday at the Etihad, thanks to a brace from the in-form Erling Haaland.

The Norwegian scored two quickfire goals in the second half to earn the three points for his team, taking his tally this season to a staggering 23 goals in 13 games for club and country.

While Haaland kept up his rich vein of form, another Manchester City player, Phil Foden, continued his return to form. The England international didn't register an assist for either goal, but he created both.

City threatened from the left time and again in the first period, with the silky Phil Foden dictating play. And yet, the hosts, without the injured Rodri, did look porous on occasion, particularly once, when a misplaced pass from Nathan Ake went straight to Iliman Ndiaye. He picked a pass to Beto, whose touch went just wide of the target.

In the second half, City commanded more control, and the goal came from the likeliest of sources on the pitch. Some neat build-up play saw Foden thread a perfectly weighted pass to Nico O'Reilly down the left, who chipped it into the danger area. A hungry Erling Haaland pounced with a powerful header to make it 1-0.

Five minutes later, Foden, this time from the right, switched flanks and dropped the ball to Savinho on the left, who pulled it back for Haaland to drive it in for 2-0.

When Haaland joined Manchester City in 2022, he instantly formed a deadly partnership with Kevin de Bruyne, City's midfield maestro at the time. With the Belgian no longer at the club, the mantle has somewhat been passed on to Phil Foden, who has the ability to pick passes from midfield. Asked about his partnership with Haaland, Foden said after the match:

"Yeah, I think I'm improving my relationship with him, I played a lot of passes in behind, it would have been nice for him to finish a few. But everytime I pass he seems to miss! But we're definitely building that relationship. To find him in behind, where he needs the ball to score goals, so that's something we've been working on."

Foden spoke about enduring a difficult first half in which Everton had pressing spell, and what changed in the second:

"It was difficult. In the first half, we were really at it. We were playing forward as quickly as we could do, but there wasn't space in between the lines. The manager spoke about it at halftime.

"In the second half, we were more meaningful going forward, breaking lines, and we had a lot of chances. We created a lot. Overall, we have to be happy with the performance."

While City dominated the game with 68% possession, Everton contained them until the 58th minute.

Haaland, who scored his 10th and 11th Premier League goals of the season, could have gotten himself a hattrick on multiple occasions, but he somehow faltered. However, speaking about the time at which Haaland broke the deadlock, Foden said:

"(It was) Very important. We know he has the quality to time his runs to perfection. Always be in the right position. We know that even if you mark him out of the game, he's still capable of scoring.

"If you lose concentration, he only needs one chance to score. We remained very patient. There wasn't a lot of space for him today, but as you can see, he's always there for us at the right times, and this is a sign of a world-class striker."

For the whole of last season and now parts of this, City have dearly missed the presence of Rodri, who is currently out with a hamstring injury. But with Foden finding his feet again, Man City again look formidable going forward.

City are now top of the table and level on points with Arsenal at 16. While it looked like the title race would be between Liverpool and Arsenal this season, Pep Guardiola's team are slowly but surely entering that conversation again.

Now, with Arsenal playing away at Fulham later in the day and Liverpool clashing with arch-rivals Manchester United on Sunday, it remains to be seen if Manchester City can finish the weekend on top spot.