In the 65th minute Rayan Cherki burst along the right, cut back, then delivered a scintillating rabona plum on to the head of Phil Foden, who nodded home off the bar. Manchester City had cruised to a 3-0 lead and were heading for second, two points off the top, after Arsenal’s defeat at Aston Villa, and the Etihad Stadium doffed the proverbial at the magical Cherki.
Of his 22-year-old star man, Pep Guardiola said: “Rayan is an exceptional player, so young, has huge personality. In the final third he has something special. What I admire the most about Rayan is not the skills. I never saw these kind of crosses from Messi – I like simplicity because I learned from Messi never to make a mistake with the simple things.
“I want players to do the simple things well and after that, you have special talent and he can do whatever he wants, but if he doesn’t work now it will be a problem.”
You wonder if City will again break the hearts of Arsenal in May, when the title is won – if Cherki continues to flower, as he did here, then the 22-year-old will join Foden and Erling Haaland as City’s gun attackers who can give them the best chance of another crown.
Guardiola adored Cherki’s man-of-the-match display as much as there being no second-half defensive horror show, as there was at Fulham. The manager’s dislike of shipping three goals in Tuesday’s 5-4 win was summed up by what he said about Savinho, who was a 64th-minute substitute then and came on with eight minutes left in this game. “Savinho lost the ball and didn’t run back. I told him. Today he lost one or two balls and two seconds later he was a full-back. Savio is going to play a lot of minutes,” said the manager.
Draws with Liverpool and Arsenal and a 2-1 win at Chelsea were Sunderland’s credentials as Régis Le Bris’s side kicked off in sixth, before suffering a schooling, their travails ending with Luke O’Nien’s added-time red for chopping down Matheus Nunes.
Foden flitted about the pitch demanding the ball, appearing in the Black Cats’ area for headers, or near halfway, passing to Gianluigi Donnarumma for the goalkeeper to reset City’s buildup. A Jérémy Doku ball played Foden in but the ball skipped across Robin Roefs’ goal and the chance was wasted.
Enjoying a possession share above 65%, Guardiola’s men probed, yet at this stage the ball was being relayed at the sluggish pace that infuriates the manager.
Le Bris assembled his backline five-men strong, so when City did finally score Rúben Dias was cute to let fly from about 25 yards: the centre-back’s missile bent away (perhaps deflected) from Roefs and those in blue were ahead. Before his strike at Newcastle in late November, the Portuguese last scored in club colours in September 2022 (a 4-0 victory at Sevilla).
City were 2-0 up four minutes later. Foden dropped a corner from the right into the six-yard box and Josko Gvardiol’s sweetly timed leap was matched by a bullet header that defeated Roefs.
Guardiola, ever the tactical tinkerer, intrigued via a switch that took Bernardo Silva infield from the right to join Foden and Cherki as a third playmaker, the trio often dizzying their visitors with interlinked carousel passing.
At 2-0 ahead this was an exercise in achieving the polar opposite to Tuesday. Guardiola’s adherence to attack-first means, as he reiterated when explaining what went wrong in west London, that the ball is away from City territory, keeping the goal safe. The contest erupting in a pell-mell end-to-end phase will not have pleased him, then.
Doku dipped a shoulder and saw a curler smack the right post, then Roefs saved Foden’s follow-up. Moments later a dawdling Dias was mugged in City’s defensive third by Wilson Isidor, whose shot was beaten away by the outrushing Donnarumma. At the ensuing corner Granit Xhaka’s effort pinged off the right post.
Next came bewitching Cherki footwork, deep in Sunderland’s area, the No 10 finding Erling Haaland, whose attempt was blocked on the line by Lutsharel Geertruida.
The contest was about to be decorated by Cherki’s assist for Foden’s third. This was an afternoon when you saw why Guardiola rates the Frenchman so highly.
