Manchester City supporters feel Phil Foden's performance in Saturday's victory against Tottenham is enough to earn the midfielder a starting berth in Wednesday's Manchester derby.
The 18-year-old scored his first Premier League goal in only his second league start for the Blues, heading on five minutes to banish the memory of City's Champions League quarter-final defeat by Spurs at the same ground four days earlier.
Foden took his tally to seven for the season with the effort before Kevin De Bruyne hobbled off with a hamstring problem on the cusp of half-time.
It was a third injury of the season for the Belgium international and City boss Pep Guardiola will have to choose two of Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan, David Silva and Foden to form his midfield at Old Trafford.
City will win the league with maximum points from their four remaining games, and a narrow majority of City fans polled by the MEN feel Foden should be trusted with the biggest start of his fledgling career to date.
55% of 1,738 supporters polled felt the City academy product should start, with 45% unconvinced by the prospect.
Foden has made 25 first-team appearances this season - totalling 1,051 minutes - and Guardiola said after Saturday's win that the midfielder was on his radar from the moment he signed on as manager in 2016.
"He’s special," Guardiola said. "I trust him a lot, from the first time I saw him. When I first landed here Txiki Begiristain [City’s sporting director] told me: ‘Meet one player – he is 15, 16 years old. You have to know him.’
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“And I did. After one day, two days, he came to our training session and – wow. I said: ‘You are right, Txiki – this player is good.’ Last season he started to train with us [in the first team], him and Jadon Sancho, and that was the start of us watching him.
“With young players you have to be careful. As quick as you go up, as quick you go down. Sometimes you have to handle that situation a bit but we didn’t have any doubts. Every time he played he was outstanding, he was the top, he was at the level to be a Manchester City player – and it isn’t easy to be in that team."
