Kevin De Bruyne’s role at Man City means the tougher the game, the better he is

“When Kevin De Bruyne turns all red,” French TV said last week, “it's a bad sign for the opponent.”

Indeed. He has now played 30 Premier League and Champions League games in April and May across the past five seasons, and in that time he has scored 18 goals and laid on 14 assists.

They are remarkable numbers that prove that, quite simply, he steps up.

He is built for games like Manchester City's victory over Arsenal on Wednesday, when he has spaces to maraud into and pinpoint passes — and shots — to play. Due to his complexion, the more he runs, the redder his face gets. The more he runs, the better he is.

“This type of game is a bit more open and in any transition, Kevin is the best,” Pep Guardiola said around 18 months ago after City had routed Leeds 7-0, and it is even truer now than it was then.

And on Wednesday it was the same story: “When we can find Kevin and he can run he is unstoppable,” Guardiola said.

There is a feeling around City now that they will get the job done in matches no matter what, that they will win 'si o si', as Guardiola would say in Spanish.

“It's not enough to play good, you need to punish,” as Rodri put it recently. “I remember the game in Nottingham, these kinds of games cannot happen.”

Every single City player embodied that approach as they swept past Arsenal but none did more to ensure that they got what they deserved than De Bruyne — and nobody could have made it look easier.

The City players looked levels above Arsenal's and De Bruyne looked levels above them all. If his first goal looked stupidly simple then what about his second? In between he put the ball in the box for John Stones to make it 2-0, to give City the distance they deserved heading into half-time.

On a night where Erling Haaland rampaged like normal but without the usual end product — until stoppage time — it took the man who is usually the provider to get in on the goals and produce unerring finishes.

De Bruyne does not have the pace of Haaland, so when the Norwegian flicked the ball to him just inside the Arsenal half he could not carry it all the way into the box, but he can carry it far enough to get to the edge of the box and then, somehow, slot the ball in from more than 20 yards out as if he had gone eye-to-eye with Aaron Ramsdale.

In City's last home game, against Leicester, De Bruyne won the ball back on the halfway line, slid in Haaland and the big striker did the rest. On Wednesday De Bruyne won the ball on the halfway line, played it to Haaland but then went for the return himself. Inside the box, he took two touches to settle himself and a third to steer the ball exactly where it needed to go.

(Photo: Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)

That was the moment when City's supremacy over Arsenal on the night was cemented and when it became clear that De Bruyne, even considering the quality of his team-mates, is still the star man.

Guardiola called him “the master of assists” afterwards but when asked by the television interviewer he preferred to focus on the little details.

“Kevin is… always I push him and had a feeling he can do better,” he said, before drifting into tactical details. “In this shape (he can) move with more freedom, long balls, second balls with Erling up front, is so dangerous for the opponent.”

Guardiola has indeed pushed him a lot this season and said on several occasions that he wants more from the Belgian, that he even had to go back to doing the “basics” well.

“Kevin needs movements. He has to get the ball in movement, not stopping or being quiet in one position,” was the most succinct piece of analysis.

De Bruyne is more than dangerous in those games that are more closed, but he really comes to life when he has that freedom.

He has five assists in his last four Premier League games. He has scored against Liverpool and now two against Arsenal.

Last season the facts are even more remarkable. He scored inside two minutes against Liverpool, and inside two minutes against Real Madrid. He scored the only goal of the tie against Atletico Madrid.

He scored four goals against Wolves, a first-half hat-trick, all with his left foot. On the final day, he put the ball across goal for Ilkay Gundogan to tap in from a yard out and secure their fourth Premier League title in five years.

So he was doing this long before Haaland arrived and even if the record-breaking 22-year-old was not quite as sharp on Wednesday, you cannot really talk about one without the other.

With Haaland, City have added a new dimension to their game. They used to control games brilliantly but they often shunned the counter-attack, minimising, to some extent, De Bruyne's best assets, certainly compared to now.

But with Haaland, City and De Bruyne's threat is only likely to increase when the games get tougher: the best teams, those who try to play out from the back, to press, to push up high, are at the biggest risk of being punished because Haaland can suddenly find himself in on goal.

Usually, it is De Bruyne who finds him.