Phil Foden shines as Manchester City see off Oxford United in front of packed house for League Cup tie

If you were looking for meaning in Manchester City beating the 23^rd placed team in League One then you might be looking for some time. Yes, it was a great night for Phil Foden, the teenager who was involved in Manchester City’s first two goals and then scored the third with the last kick of the game. It was the best night of his senior career so far. But this was still an obvious mismatch, in which City’s first goal was scored by Gabriel Jesus, and their second by Riyad Mahrez, before Foden grabbed the third. City’s progress into the fourth round of the competition was never in doubt.

But while this was not the most memorable game of City’s season, it might be one of the most memorable occasions. The Premier League and League Cup holders helped to fill the Kassam Stadium, generating the biggest crowd here since 2006, when Oxford were relegated out of the Football League here by Luton Town.

This was one of Oxford’s biggest nights since then, and the whole club felt a responsibility to harness that interest tonight. This club has become slowly detached from its local community over the years, but Robinson is desperate for that to change. They even made a point of playing local bands Foals and Supergrass before kick off, to galvanise the local crowd. The official attendance was just under 12,000, but would easily have made it beyond that number when it included the dozens of youngsters who climbed on top of cars and vans so they could see over the west end, where there is a car park instead of a stand.

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And those Oxford fans were rewarded. Not with a win or even a goal, but with a performance. They slowed City down and only conceded the opener in the final minutes of the first half. They dug in for much of the second and only in the final minutes did the scoreline get away from them. It was a world away from their limp 2-1 defeat here to Walsall on Saturday, in front of half as many people as this.

The Oxford fans were also rewarded with a Manchester City side that, while not at full strength, still had the capacity to entertain and impress. David Silva started, ran the game for an hour, and was then applauded off by the whole crowd. One official commented what an unlikely thing it was to see him tussling for the ball with Sam Long. Vincent Kompany started in defence, John Stones in holding midfield and Mahrez and Jesus in the front line.

Take all of these ingredients together – one high quality team, one home crowd desperate to fill their ground, the sight of world class players in unfamiliar environments – and the whole thing felt like a perfect advert for the League Cup. It is not our most fashionable club competition but creating occasions like this is obviously a good thing. It even makes the case for drawing the Premier League teams away at the lower league sides at a matter of course. Imagine this game at a half-empty Etihad and it would not have been half as compelling.

Clearly the atmosphere and the occasion encouraged the Oxford players in the first half. These players are not used to having the backing of the whole city in home games but they did here. Robinson had his players well organised in a 4-4-1-1, with Cameron Brannagan scampering around behind the battering ram Jon Obika. And it worked. Oxford’s yellow swarm was enough to disrupt City’s rhythm. They even found one of their own, completing a passing move after 19 minutes that had the capacity crowd ole-ing with glee. Even with the changes that were forced on Robinson, his players rose the challenge.

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City were anxious and short of ideas, struggling to find their way through. They were resorting to shooting from distance, Danilo, Mahrez and Oleksandr Zinchenko all failing to score. Just when we had the prospect of an even game, City snuck in front at the end of the first half, thanks to two of their youngsters. No longer trying to be too patient, Foden found Brahim Diaz with a long diagonal. Diaz’s cross was deflected and there was Gabriel Jesus, at the far post, strong enough to nod the ball in.

City probably deserved that lead, on the balance of the play, but the goal did deflate the second half of the competitive tension it would have had. From there City could attack with more freedom, knowing that they no longer needed to score to avoid penalties. Jesus cut inside and blazed over, Foden put one into the side netting and Mahrez, increasingly dangerous, forced a good save from Jonathan Mitchell.

Those were the two who combined at the very end to take the game away from Oxford. First Foden fired a clever pass down through to Mahrez, running in behind, and he finally tucked the ball past Mitchell. Then, with the game’s last kick, Foden picked up the ball in the box and drove it into the bottom corner. This was a great night for Foden, involved in the first , setting up the second and scoring the third. But there may have been even more important things at stake than that.

Oxford (4-2-3-1) Mitchell; Long, Nelson, Dickie, Garbutt; Whyte, Hanson (Henry, 67), Baptiste Holmes (Smith, 77); Brannagan (Ruffels, 55); Obika.

Manchester City (4-3-3) Muric; Daniilo, Kompany, Otamendi, ZInchenko; Stones, Foden, D. Silva (Gundogan, 62); Mahrez (Bernabe, 84), Jesus, Brahim (Sterling, 55).

Man of the match Foden