Rayan Cherki probably didn't envisage his first Premier League assist being a headed flick-on inside his own half, but welcome to England's top flight in 2025/26. Even Pep Guardiola isn't averse to the gnarled charms of a bit of route one.
The familiar beneficiary was Erling Haaland. Able to gorge himself on a wide open half of the field to bear down on goal and open the scoring in Manchester City's rip-roaring 3-1 win over Bournemouth on Sunday.
Much of the recent conversation around City has centred on whether they are too reliant upon Haaland's goalscoring prowess. When his second of the afternoon moved the giant Norwegian on to 13 goals in 10 Premier League games this season, the thought occurred that there are worse problems to have than relying on such freakish numbers.
But such purple patches can never last forever and City laboured at times during midweek when Haaland put his feet up for the Carabao Cup trip to Swansea City. Guardiola's men were staring down the barrel of a penalty shootout until Omar Marmoush and Cherki scored inside the final 15 minutes to close out a 3-1 win.
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Cherki's introduction to life at City has been interrupted by a thigh injury that forced him to miss seven games after the 2-0 defeat to Tottenham in August, his previous start at the Etihad Stadium. On that occasion, the 22-year-old France playmaker was hooked after 54 ponderous minutes.
A lot has changed since then. Imagine Tottenham carrying a goalscoring threat, for example. In City's world, Haaland has gone nuclear, Phil Foden is knitting things together in midfield with his old verve, and Nico Gonzalez has stepped into Rodri's considerable shoes in the holding role.
And yet, Guardiola knows he needs more from his supporting cast. Burnley defender Maxime Esteve remains City's second-highest scorer in the Premier League after his unfortunate brace of own goals in east Manchester in September. Nico O'Reilly's nicely taken third on Sunday put him level with Foden, Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders and Matheus Nunes on one league goal this season. Largely thanks to Haaland, City are the division's top scorers with 20 and finish the weekend as Arsenal's nearest challengers, six points in arrears in second.
These two 🤝🤯 pic.twitter.com/itAMtIFZCH
— Manchester City (@ManCity) November 2, 2025
Ahead of a big week when Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool visit the Etihad Stadium, Cherki's performance gave Guardiola the most convincing evidence to back up his assertion that his team will do good things this season. When the team sheets dropped, the obvious concern for City was that a midfield of artisans rather than manual labourers would be gobbled up by Bournemouth's transitional monsters. Eli Junior Kroupi's disallowed goal after 40 seconds daubed fairly large writing on the wall. But Guardiola's men held their own, with Gonzalez feeding Foden and Cherki to scheme.
"They put a lot of players inside," Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola observed afterwards. Against us especially, they don't leave the wingers open. When you don't leave them a lot of space, Foden and Cherki can play one-touch. Pum, pum, pum."
This looked like a reboot of the safety-first formation Guardiola unfurled to eke out Champions League qualification last season, with multiple midfielders blocking up the middle and Nunes and O'Reilly tasked with providing attacking thrust from full-back. But instead of Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne in the autumn of their Eastlands careers and a sometimes haphazard Mateo Kovacic, he had Gonzalez, Foden and Cherki setting the terms of engagement.
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All three were involved when Cherki released Haaland to restore City's lead after the half hour. Including his first outings in sky blue at the Club World Cup, Cherki's two assists today take him to seven goal involvements in 11 appearances.
"The talent of the players we had between the lines, and especially Erling, made the difference," Guardiola concurred, before praising Cherki specifically.
"His vision in the final third is so good, His consistency, his courage to play. With the dynamic that we play, he needs a little more time to adapt to the rhythm of the Premier League. In Swansea he made an assist for Omar and then a goal. Today, two assists. He has this special talent and connection with the people up front that is unique."
Last season at Lyon, he contributed 12 goals and 20 assists across all competitions. When Cherki is around, goals happen. The fact that he was able to come through the test laid out by Bournemouth today, the sort that caused City to wilt last season, feels significant.