MANCHESTER CITY 5-0 NORWICH CITY
- Goals: Tim Krul (£4.5m) own-goal, Jack Grealish (£8.0m), Aymeric Laporte (£5.5m), Raheem Sterling (£11.0m), Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m)
- Assists: Gabriel Jesus (£8.5m) x2, Ruben Dias (£6.0m)
- Bonus: Jesus x3, Laporte x2, Dias x2
JESUS EXCELS OUT WIDE
Gabriel Jesus (£8.5m) is a regular for his national side on the right flank but we’ve seldom seen him deployed on the wing for Manchester City.
That’s the tactic Pep Guardiola turned to on Saturday, with the Brazilian and Jack Grealish (£8.0m) stationed either side of ‘out of position’ FPL midfielder Ferran Torres (£7.0m) in the front three.
Above: Gabriel Jesus’s touch heatmap in Gameweek 2, via the Premium Members Area
His performance was excellent and he was unlucky not to complete a hat-trick of assists given that he was the provider of the cross that led to Tim Krul‘s (£4.5m) own-goal.
While we’re never sure what Pep Guardiola has up his sleeve in any given Gameweek, such was the success of the tactical experiment that it could easily be repeated against Arsenal in Gameweek 3 – which would spell bad news for Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m), who at least salvaged something out of a substitute’s appearance on Saturday by slotting home City’s fifth goal.
“He’s a player who likes to be wider than central position. One of the reasons why I’m a manager is when you can work with people and humans like Gabriel. He never complains, he plays five minutes, he plays the best five minutes he can do.
“He’s happy on left, right or centre and today the connection with Kyle was exceptional. I’m pleased with his performance; he was involved in three of our goals and is an incredibly important player for us.” – Pep Guardiola on Gabriel Jesus
EARLY START FOR PEP ROTATION
Guardiola made five changes to his starting XI for this victory.
It’s not just the rotation that makes pinpointing a strikerless City asset in FPL tricky: their 16 shots against Norwich were spread across 10 players.
Grealish only chalked up the one effort, an inadvertent touch from a Jesus cross that resulted in his first City goal, but his 11 penalty box touches was a high in this fixture and Guardiola wants his summer signing to start turning close-to-goal proximity into returns.
“If he gets the mentality to score goals like Raheem, yeah (he can score more). When Raheem was here when I first arrived he didn’t have goals in his mind and we immediately changed his arrival. Today he scored because he arrives in the centre, he’s a machine there. He changed his mind and decided he was going to score. Jack has this mentality to score goals and win games as well.” – Pep Guardiola on Jack Grealish
It was business as usual for last season’s meanest defence, who allowed Norwich just one shot on goal.
Aymeric Laporte (£5.5m) and Ruben Dias (£6.0m) delivered attacking returns but Joao Cancelo (£6.0m) again caught the eye offensively, registering more than twice as many penalty box touches than ‘false nine’ Torres.
On the injury front, Ilkay Gundogan (£7.4m) was able to start for the Citizens but neither Kevin De Bruyne (£12.0m) nor John Stones (£5.4m) made the squad due to fitness reasons.
£4.0m WILLIAMS ARRIVES
We’re lucky to get one playing £4.0m defender in some seasons but we’re blessed with a handful of them at present, and another could be joining the ranks in the form of Brandon Williams (£4.0m).
The Manchester United defender has signed for Norwich on a season-long loan and his arrival probably couldn’t be timed better with regards to playing time, with Daniel Farke bemoaning the fact that four of the reigning champions’ five goals came from the left-back area – Williams’ position.
The current occupier of that role, Dimitris Giannoulis (£4.5m), was hooked at half-time, with replacement Bali Mumba (£4.0m) coming in for some criticism from his manager after the game.
“We are disappointed with the result and especially with the way that we conceded four times the same goal – their players getting in behind my left-back for an easy tap-in. We were a bit unlucky with the second phase after the set piece for Laporte’s goal, but I’m disappointed with how we conceded the other four goals.
“We prepared the whole week because City always plays like this with a chipped ball or low pass behind the last row and the right winger tries to be there with the movement. I wish we defended those situations with a bit more individual quality but we didn’t today so we have to accept the loss.
“It was a tough first half for Dimi. It’s a tough start for him and his first time playing on this level. Last week, he faced Mo Salah who finished the game with one goal and two assists. I wanted to wait at least until half-time not to embarrass him too much and we have to accept it’s his first time playing on this level. He needs to adapt and he knows that he has to fulfil the role with a bit more quality.
“Bali affected the game but conceded twice the same goal. I was a bit disappointed with his behaviour for the fifth goal because you can’t play offside and just throw the arm up in the air.” – Daniel Farke
Naturally, a £4.0m Norwich defender is a mite different from a Liverpool asset at the same price, so expectations will have to be lower of a player who is part of a backline that looks as unconvincing it did two seasons ago.
The fixtures do ease for Williams and his new teammates from Gameweek 5 onwards, however, with the Canaries top of our Season Ticker from then until Gameweek 14.
Manchester City XI: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo, Gundogan, (Palmer 69), Grealish (Mahrez 75), Rodri, Jesus, Silva, Torres (Sterling 61).
Norwich City XI: Krul, Aarons, Gibson, Hanley, Giannoulis (Mumba 46), Rupp (McLean 46), Gilmour, Lees-Melou, Cantwell, Pukki (Sargent 77), Rashica.
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW FROM GAMEWEEK 2
2 years, 7 months agosterling anybody?