Manchester City beat Villarreal 2-0 in the Champions League and Brazilian winger Savinho was key to the success.
Savinho
Savinho produced one of his best City performances in the win against Villarreal
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In among a flurry of new contracts dished out at Manchester City in the last couple of months, it was the one given to Savinho that was of most intrigue and led to the most debate.
The Brazilian had only been at the Etihad for one season before seeing a contract with four years still to run extended to six years, with a hefty pay rise included.
The 21-year-old's debut campaign had been promising, but he had flirted with an exit in the summer when he fluttered his eyelashes at Tottenham, who had a strong interest in signing him.
Savinho missed the start of the season with a mystery injury as that transfer saga dragged on, and his social media activity didn't always endear himself to the fans, although it might be that amateur sleuths were reading too much into a suitcase lurking in the background of a photo of a pool table.
He has certainly cleaned up since. You could argue he played the window perfectly, earning that new deal and extra cash as a result of Spurs' desire to sign him. But with the contract and the salary comes an expectation to perform.
His performances last season sparked plenty of debate and his first start of this certainly split opinion. He ended up scoring at Huddersfield in the Carabao Cup, but until his 74th-minute goal, he had frustrated supporters with another night lacking in end product.
Pep Guardiola seems enamoured, however. No player got more minutes in the Club World Cup and the 21-year-old has now started five of the last six games.
He might just be taking his game up a level as well. He has started to perform more consistently and having set up Erling Haaland for City's second against Everton on Saturday, he was excellent at El Madrigal as the Blues cruised past Villarreal in the Champions League.
So dangerous was Savinho that the hosts' left-back, Alfonso Pedraza, was booked after 11 minutes and hooked at half-time, having seen both goals come down his flank. Savinho played a perfectly weighted pass to Rico Lewis to help create the first, and then stuck a cross on Bernardo Silva's head for the second.
He combined well with Lewis all night and the intelligence of the play down the City right was a joy to behold. They were direct when required but showed patience as well, waiting for the right opportunity to inject speed into a move.
Sergi Cardona came on for Pedraza, but he fared little better. Savinho glided past him a couple of times in the early stages of the second half, putting him on the back foot and making him doubt himself from then on.
There was one brief spell last season when Savinho threatened to start delivering regularly. He scored and assisted against Leicester City at the end of 2024 and created two goals against West Ham at the start of 2025, but then the fizz quickly disappeared again.
In total, his first season at the Etihad yielded three goals and 13 assists. That isn't terrible, especially in a team that often struggled, but more was expected, and now more is starting to come.
Savinho looked bright in the United States in the summer and during that tournament, Guardiola backed him to eventually deliver on that potential in the final third.
"He is a player with incredible potential," he said. "We cannot forget he's so young.
"He needs to make the final third more decisive in aspects like the goal he has done in the last game. He has to do it more. The last goal is more and more complicated and difficult to score than the previous ones - one against ones, the 'keeper, that maybe last season he missed.
"The moment he will make this step, which will come in a natural way because he has incredible individual quality, when it arrives for his commitment to say I want to do it, I want to be decisive, I want to score goals and make more assists, he will become an extraordinary player.
"He can play on both sides, right and left, he's so fast, he understands tactically the movements he has so to do so that's why he can play with us."
This will be near the top of the list of Savinho's best performances in a City shirt, and gives him a platform to build on to prove he is worth the faith Guardiola has shown in him.