All who attend the Rayan Cherki show know the ticket comes with a guarantee of entertainment. Enzo Maresca, a manager famed for his obsessive positional control, does not need to put limits on the Manchester City wizard. Cherki has to feel free and he was at his creative best against Crystal Palace, who were in this game before City’s creative heartbeat took it away from them in the second half.
It has been a fine start to the former Lyon player’s second year in England. Cherki was inspired against Bournemouth last week, coming off the bench to spark City’s fightback with two assists, and this was better. The Frenchman scored twice and the first, a little prod with the outside of his left foot after a mazy run, left you wondering if you have seen something like it before.
Palace, stuck on zero points despite playing well in their first two outings under Pierre Sage, did not have an answer to Cherki’s magic. They were also stung by a clinical double from Erling Haaland, who is up and running for the season, and Maresca can feel his post-Pep team have moved on from the Community Shield debacle. City got away with one against Bournemouth, leaving it late before winning on the opening weekend.
A challenge for Maresca is working with an incomplete midfield following the exits of Rodri and Bernardo Silva. Ayyoub Bouaddi has arrived from Lille, £86m an eye-catching fee for an 18-year-old after his exploits for Morocco at the World Cup, but there is room for one more and there is no doubt Maresca will feel more at ease if a deal to sign Enzo Fernández from Chelsea can be agreed before Tuesday’s deadline. Not that anyone is going to argue that City are short on midfield options.
Maresca, ever the tinkerer, shuffled the pack again. The experiment with Marc Guéhi in the engine room was discontinued, allowing him to slot into central defence against his old side. Elliot Anderson was the sole pivot, Nico O’Reilly pushed high in a 4-1-4-1 system and Josko Gvardiol inverted from left-back, much like Marc Cucurella in Maresca’s Chelsea side.
There are subtle tweaks to the Guardiola template, though some things never change. City found their groove after a fast start from Palace and went ahead in the 17th minute. Antoine Semenyo had time to cross from the left and Haaland, who has found the back of the net in all six of his league appearances against the south Londoners, was given space to loop a clever header over Dean Henderson.
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