Manchester City forward Antoine Semenyo has revealed how Pep Guardiola drilled a deeper understanding of the game into him, and credited the difficult early years of his career with giving him the resilience to make a flying start in life in sky blue.
Antoine Semenyo is set for two months on the sidelines with a knee injury.
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Every City supporter will remember the moment Antoine Semenyo settled last season’s FA Cup final, a glorious improvised flick that handed Pep Guardiola the last trophy of his decade in charge.
It was a sizeable contribution from a forward who had arrived at the Etihad Stadium only months earlier and hit the ground running with Premier League goals.
It’s safe to say Semenyo has not glanced back since that January switch from Bournemouth to Manchester City. In a new interview, he has reflected on how far he has travelled, crediting both the coaching that sharpened his game under Guardiola and the lower-league struggles that made him the player he is today.
"Pep drilled that into me": How Guardiola shaped Semenyo’s game
Semenyo has enjoyed a remarkable 2026, having racked up 13 goals in 37 appearances in a Manchester City shirt and admitting that the move to the Etihad Stadium forced him to keep improving.
Speaking to UEFA in the days prior to last week's UEFA Champions League loss to Paris Saint-Germain, in comments carried by official club media, the forward pointed to Guardiola’s influence as the single biggest factor in his development.
“From day one, I had to understand myself as a player,” Semenyo said. “It’s understanding the pace of the game, when to go slow, when to speed it up, when to dribble. Pep drilled that into me a lot and it’s helped me.
“It’s definitely helped me because I feel like I understand the game really well.”
Even surrounded by the calibre of player Manchester City have at their disposal, Semenyo says the education has not stopped.
“I’m playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world,” he added. “We’re playing our best football and I’m with star players and I’m still learning about myself every day.”
The setbacks that sculpted a player
Though Guardiola’s coaching refined the player, Semenyo traces the roots of his identity as a footballer back much further, to the years before he tasted Premier League action.
The forward came up through the Football League, with loan spells that tested him, and he is adamant those periods were the foundation of the mentality he carries now.
“It’s made me, ultimately, resilient. I’m strong minded and have strong character. Anything in the way is just a blur,” Semenyo said.
“I’m always going to be tunnel visioned on what my goal is. If I want something, I’m going to get it eventually. I had a lot of phases at Newport, Bristol, Sunderland where I wasn’t playing so well and I was out of the team.
“You need to be strong minded to get through those moments. If you’re not strong minded, you’ll fall.”
A mentality Man City need plenty of
Manchester City were beaten 4-2 at home by Paris Saint-Germain in the week the interview appeared, a rare off night in an otherwise faultless start to the campaign.
Enzo Maresca’s side responded in exactly the manner Semenyo describes, edging Ipswich Town 3-2 on Saturday to make it seven straight league wins in a row, the best start to a managerial reign in Premier League history.
Manchester City sit top of the table and now turn back to Europe, hosting AEK Athens at the Etihad Stadium as they look to shake off that PSG setback in the Champions League. They may have to do it without Semenyo, who went off injured against Ipswich and is reportedly set for a month or two on the sidelines.