Stones redemption helps propel Man City back into title reckoning
In Manchester City's 4-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday night, John Stones joined an exclusive club. Since WhoScored started collecting data from the 2009/10 Premier League season onwards, he became just the fourth centre-back to score twice and keep a clean sheet in a match, following in the footsteps of John Terry, Fabian Schar and Virgil van Dijk.
It was a performance the warranted the WhoScored man of the match award as Stones put in his best rated Premier League showing in a City shirt, earning a rating of 8.64, which was enough to feature in the team of the week. Sunday's showing marked a fine turnaround in fortunes for Stones, whose career at the Etihad Stadium could well have come to an end over the summer.
Pep Guardiola made no secret of his desire to bring in at least one centre-back last year. The club never really replaced the outgoing Vincent Kompany, and rather relied heavily on the fitness of Aymeric Laporte, the versatility of Fernandinho and the inconsistent Nicolas Otamendi. Stones, then, was viewed as fourth choice at the Etihad Stadium and it was reflected in his 12 league starts last term.
Many had tipped the centre-back to push on under Guardiola upon his move to Manchester in 2016 and while the early signs were promising, it looked to be in everyone's best interests for both City and Stones to part ways in the summer window. The arrivals of Nathan Ake and, in particular, Ruben Dias looked to have pushed Stones further down the pecking order, with it expected that Guardiola would look to forge a centre-back partnership of Dias and Laporte.
And up until City's 2-0 defeat at Tottenham back in November, this looked to be the case. However, following the loss in north London, Guardiola has elected for a duo of Dias and Stones at the heart of the defence, using the pair in 10 of the last 15 competitive matches. In that period, City have won nine and conceded just the once, that a late Callum Hudson-Odoi consolation in a 3-1 win at Chelsea earlier this month.
Many tipped Dias and Laporte to be one of the best pairings in England, but the latter has started just twice since the loss at Spurs, with injuries coupled with the form of Stones impacting his playing time. The Frenchman has now been forced to watch from the sidelines as City wrack up clean sheet after clean sheet with the Portuguese summer arrival and his English teammate earning the plaudits.
Handed what many believed to be a rare chance to once again prove himself, Stones has grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Indeed, only Southampton's Jannik Vestergaard (7.27) has earned a better WhoScored rating than Stones (7.23) of Premier League centre-backs to have made five or more appearances this season. Such has been the form of the former Everton man that an England recall has been mooted and it wouldn't be a shock to see Stones play his way back into Southgate's squad.
With England considered one of the more dominant sides on the international stage, Stones' distribution is key for the Three Lions and having mustered a better pass success rate (93.7%) than any other Premier League player this season, the 26-year-old seems the best fit in Southgate's system.
His return would likely be welcomed by England football fans provided he operates in a setup that plays to his strengths and, importantly, alongside a leader at the back. The issue in the past has been that Stones hasn't played in a side that has a commanding presence in defence, until the capture of Dias, a void that would be filled on the intenational stage by Manchester United captain Harry Maguire.
For now, though, Stones needs to take each game as it comes. His style of play increases the likelihood of mistakes at the back, but these errors that had hindered his development look to have been ironed out and it has seen the defender go from strength to strength with each passing week following his return to the first team fold under Guardiola.
In a season where it's proving difficult to predict a Premier League champion, City have surged back into title reckoning with their watertight backline proving that the best defence is not always a good offence. And at the heart of that has been Stones and his formidible partnership with Dias, which means City have conceded fewer goals (13) than any other Premier League side as they seek to wrestle their crown back from Liverpool.
