Incredible Kevin De Bruyne statistic will terrify Man City's Premier League title rivals

Kevin De Bruyne's return from action can be summed up with one statistic, and it will terrify Manchester City's Premier League title rivals.

Last month De Bruyne made a long-awaited return to action after missing five months with a serious hamstring injury he suffered on the opening day of the Premier League season.

Many City fans feared that the Belgian midfielder would not be the same when he recovered, but over the last few weeks he has put those concerns to rest.

De Bruyne has made seven appearances since returning to action, scoring one goal and setting up seven more.

The 32-year-old has registered an assist in four consecutive Premier League outings, but it's a stat that came out of his Champions League return on Tuesday that will terrify City's title challengers.

Making his first Champions League appearance since he limped out of the final in Istanbul last season, De Bruyne scored and set up two more goals as Pep Guardiola's side beat FC Copenhagen 3-1 in the first leg of their last-16 tie.

City are now heavy favourites to finish the job at the Etihad Stadium next month and reach the quarter-finals for a seventh season in a row.

In two of his seven post-injury appearances, De Bruyne has both scored and assisted.

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He has achieved the feat more times this season than Premier League stars Martin Odegaard, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, James Maddison, Conor Gallagher, Lucas Paqueta, Kai Havertz, James Ward-Prowse and Joelinton combined, despite missing five months of action.

City are currently second in the Premier League table, two points behind leaders Liverpool but with one game in hand.

Both Arsenal and Liverpool hoped that De Bruyne's absence would give them an opportunity to leave City behind in the title race, but the impressive performances of Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez in particular have put City on course to win a fourth consecutive title.

De Bruyne will look to keep up his fine form when City take on Chelsea on Saturday.

Topics: Manchester City, Kevin De Bruyne, Champions League, Premier League, Pep Guardiola, Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez

Alex Brotherton

Alex Brotherton is a Sports Trends Writer at SPORTbible. He has previously worked with publications including the Manchester Evening News, GOAL and BBC Sport. He is a football fanatic, but also dabbles in tennis and American football. He enjoys running, cooking and watching non-league football.

@alex_brotherton