Foden final appearance felt like a 'charity' substitution - Rooney

Phil Foden collected his 18th trophy as a Manchester City player Phil Foden's stoppage-time appearance in Manchester City's Carabao Cup final victory over Arsenal felt like a "charity" substitution, says former England captain Wayne Rooney. With City closing in on a 2-0 victory at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, Foden was introduced off the bench in the 90th minute by boss Pep Guardiola to replace Rayan Cherki. Frenchman Cherki, January signing Antoine Semenyo and Savinho have all been preferred to Foden in recent matches, with the Englishman starting only four of City's past 13 matches in all competitions.

The 25-year-old has not scored in his past 20 appearances dating back to 14 December, when he had been in decent form with a run of six goals in five games. "Football sometimes is not straightforward," Foden said after the victory over the Gunners. "There are ups and downs and sometimes you can't be the best version of yourself and that's the way it is.

"It's just about how you pick yourself back up. I'm still keeping my head down, trying to train as well as I can every day. "Hopefully I come back after the internationals a lot sharper and hopefully I can get more minutes and be back to where I was at the start of the season.

" Arsenal Cracking? Spurs' Disaster & Trent Snubbed! Foden has now collected 18 trophies since breaking through into the first-team as a teenager and was called up to the expanded England squad for the forthcoming friendlies against Uruguay and Japan.