City boss Enzo Maresca hailed what he described as a complete performance from two-goal Rayan Cherki after Friday’s superb 4-1 Premier League win at Crystal Palace.
The French midfield maverick produced a quite stunning display at Selhurst Park conjuring up a brilliant brace of second half goals as City made it two wins out of two in the league to go top.
For the first, he waltzed through a number of Palace defenders before then despatching a sublime finish before then smashing home a spectacular second shortly after.
With Erling Haaland also weighing in with a brace of goals either side of Cherki’s exploits, it made for a fine night’s work and much to savour for Maresca after two wins out of two.
Not least yet more magic from Cherki after his two assists from the bench last week in our opening day 2-1 home win against Bournemouth.
“For sure he’s happy. His performance for me was very good not just the two goals but the way he worked off the ball,” Maresca said.
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“When Palace had the ball, he was in charge of Adam Wharton, I think his game was a complete game on the ball and off the ball.
“Probably he was not playing at his level in the first half.
“But we were happy with his performance off the ball. Then second half he scored twice and for sure he’s much more happy.
“First of all, he loves football. So that makes it easier to work with him.
“Rayan is like this, we know how good he is.
“We know the quality that he has.
“In this moment, he is helping the team with the numbers in term of goals and assists and no doubt he’s going to help more in the future.”
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Reflecting further on the win, the Italian was also delighted with the display of Marc Guéhi.
On his return to his old Selhurst Park stamping ground, Guéhi reverted back to central defence in sublime fashion after having being deployed in midfield last weekend.
“He was impressive last week against Bournemouth as a midfielder and tonight as a central defender,” Maresca added.
“It’s what we need. He is a player who has an open mind and can be versatile and try to help the team.
“His performance tonight was very good. We’ll see we have 2 or 3 days for the transfer window and then to decide for the captains, we will see.”
A football player in a Manchester City kit is featured on the right. On the left, logos for Crystal Palace, Premier League, Manchester City, and text highlighting '20 Minute Highlights' are displayed.
Scoreboard showing Crystal Palace 1 - 4 Manchester City with a player celebrating on the field.
A Manchester City player celebrating during a game against Crystal Palace. The image includes logos of Crystal Palace FC, Manchester City FC, and Premier League, with text 'FULL MATCH REPLAY' and 'CITY+'.