Rayan Cherki (£7.6m) produced a second-half masterclass as Manchester City made it two wins from two under Enzo Maresca.
Here’s what we saw at Selhurst Park.
CHERKI, CHERKI, S**T, S**T
Cherki was actually pretty quiet in the first half, although there was one dance through the Palace defence to set up a huge headed chance for Phil Foden (£7.0m) after 27 minutes. The French playmaker then shot tamely at Dean Henderson (£5.0m) on the stroke at half-time.
Indeed, it doesn’t sound like Cherki was too far away from getting hooked at the break.
“I played so s**t. When I see Enzo wants to change me, I don’t like that, and I need to show them I want to play, I want to score, I want to give assists, because today I didn’t give a lot of ball for him and the next time I want to give him a lot of ball.” – Rayan Cherki
A more determined Cherki emerged after the break, scoring two fine solo goals. The first was particularly brilliant as he tip-toed through the Palace backline, timing his nudge past Henderson superbly.
The talent has always been there with Cherki, but perhaps the manager’s trust has not. Pep Guardiola only started him in half of City’s games last season, and he subbed him off in 14 of those 19 occasions. Reservations about the Frenchman’s off-the-ball work were typically cited.
Will things be different under Maresca? The good thing is that the new City boss was impressed by Cherki’s defensive contributions on Friday.
“For sure, he’s happy, but his performance for me was very good. Not because of the two goals, but the way he worked off the ball. He has to press. When Palace had the ball, he was in charge of Wharton. I think his game was a complete game, on the ball and off the ball.” – Enzo Maresca on Rayan Cherki
TWO ASSISTS FOR FODEN – BUT GOALS SHOULD HAVE ARRIVED
Topping the game’s expected goal involvement (xGI) table was not Cherki.
Nor was it Erling Haaland (£15.5m), who performed his usual trick of barely touching the ball (82nd-minute substitute Ayyoub Bouaddi (£5.5m) had more touches!), yet still racking up five goal attempts, two of which found the net.
And nor was it Antoine Semenyo (£8.5m), who crossed for Haaland’s headed opener, caused problems with his driving runs into the box, created three chances and had two efforts from narrow angles.
Instead, it was Foden.
The England international’s returns came courtesy of two nice assists, for Cherki and Haaland.
But, operating from the right wing, he had some golden chances of his own.
The first opportunity, pictured in the top image below, didn’t even result in a shot, as Foden was too hesitant to pounce on a loose ball. After that, two Opta-defined big chances resulted in him skying a close-range effort and miscuing a header from four yards.
It’s perhaps a confidence thing with Foden, after a couple of seasons of struggle. Hopefully, that will come back in time – although good luck to him getting his favoured ’10’ role back.
“Phil is adapting a little bit wide. We know that he’s not a winger but we are trying to find a solution. I think, when [it was] the last 10 minutes, 15 minutes, he was inside, you can see that he was enjoying a little bit more. But again, the attitude was very good and this is what we need.” – Enzo Maresca
GUEHI BACK IN DEFENCE, O’REILLY STILL ‘OOP’
When the teamsheets came out, it looked like Marc Guehi (£6.0m) was still in midfield and Nico O’Reilly (£6.5m) was taking over inverted full-back duties from Rico Lewis (£5.0m). Cherki for Lewis was Maresca’s only change.
However, Maresca had another surprise up his sleeve. Guehi slotted back in at centre-half alongside Ruben Dias (£5.5m), with Abdudokir Khusanov (£5.5m) and Josko Gvardiol (£5.5m) at full-back.
“It was, yeah, it was impressive. As you said, last week against Bournemouth as a midfielder, tonight as a central defender. It’s what we need, players, open-minded players, that can be versatile and also try to help the team.” – Enzo Maresca on Marc Guehi
That meant another ‘out of position’ run-out for O’Reilly in midfield, sort of a right-sided ‘8’ in between Elliot Anderson (£6.4m) and Cherki.
There were no returns for O’Reilly, and the clean sheet went up in smoke, but he was encouragingly advanced, again getting in and around the box.
The problem, if Maresca sees his future in midfield, is that Bouaddi has now arrived and Enzo Fernandez (£7.0m) could join him. Four players competing for two slots, or potentially five for three, including Cherki.
CITY NOT QUITE WATERTIGHT
The fact that Palace only scored through an own-goal – a Yeremy Pino (£5.5m) free-kick cannoning off the bar and in off Gianluigi Donnarumma (£5.5m) – and mustered just 0.66 xG suggests City were unlucky to lose their clean sheet.
But that expected goals tally doesn’t really do Palace justice. Tyrick Mitchell (£4.5m), Jorgen Strand Larsen (£6.0m) and Chris Richards (£5.0m) mistimed headers when they probably should have scored, while Eddie Nketiah (£5.5m) shot agonisingly wide from a Mitchell cut-back.
Virtually all of Palace’s shots came in the first half but there were other occasions when they got into some excellent positions, only for the final cross or pass to let them down.
Lots for City to work on then, and perhaps a mite of encouragement for Palace – attacking-wise, anyway – despite the defeat.
“I think you saw how we want to play during 60 minutes, 65 minutes this time. Last time it was 45 minutes. Now, the next game, I think we will be able to play the entire game in the way we decided.” – Pierre Sage
The problem for the Eagles is that they themselves looked like conceding whenever City attacked, so their defence, despite Mitchell catching the eye going forward, doesn’t really convince at present, despite a ticker-topping run ahead:
MATETA INJURED, MUNOZ BENCHED
As the pre-match rumours suggested he would, Jean-Philippe Mateta (£6.5m) missed out through injury. A month-long absence beckons.
“Yeah, he was injured two days ago at the session during individual work. That’s a crazy thing, but we can lose him maybe for at least four weeks.
“It’s a muscular issue.” – Pierre Sage on Jean-Philippe Mateta
Ismaila Sarr (£6.4m) was, of course, absent too, while the potentially exit-bound Daniel Munoz (£5.5m) dropped to the bench and remained unused. Sage called that a “sporting decision”.
Anan Khalaili (£5.0m) made his full debut in Munoz’s place. He claimed DefCon points along with City’s Anderson, despite only lasting 74 minutes. He was one of the worst culprits in terms of the final ball, however: five crosses, none successful.
