Until then, Marco Rose had been closing in on leading Bournemouth to a first away victory at City. But two lapses in defence and suddenly City were the ruthless proposition they were not before. First, Rayan Cherki floated in a corner from the right and up rose Guéhi to head past Djordje Petrovic, the Cherries No 1 left stranded by a deflection off Adrien Truffert.
Maresca, former assistant to Pep Guardiola, sighed hard, then bounced around when the winner was converted. Cherki, a second-half substitute, tapped to Gvardiol and he scored – the video assistant referee ruling this legal after an initial offside flag. Zoom out, though, and this remains a disjointed first Premier League outing for Maresca’s side.
When Jack Grealish entered on 82 minutes it was for Phil Foden who was as impotent as Erling Haaland, and City, overall. Maresca, dapper in a baggy suit reminiscent of a 1980s Hollywood movie, offered a tactical surprise by deploying Guéhi as a holding midfielder, alongside Elliot Anderson, on the £116m signing’s debut. He said: “It was just an idea the manager had, we worked on it during the week.
We’re trying different things, solutions. I’m glad today it paid off in the end.” Of interest, too, was Nico O’Reilly, City’s player of the year at left-back, preferred at No 10 to Foden, who lined up on the right. On this showing, this Maresca blueprint requires work, though he hinted it may only be a stopgap as players become fitter.
Rose’s team arrived unbeaten in 18 league games, a fine record achieved under Andoni Iraola, now at Liverpool, and when Rayan ran in and let fly their potency was clear. Gianluigi Donnarumma saved the effort, an act the keeper’s opposite number did not have to do when O’Reilly whipped the ball in from the left. Haaland, long locks newly shorn to a crew cut, caught between a header and shot, managed only an innocuous chest of the ball, so failed to record goal No 163 on his 200th City appearance.
With Rodri departed for Barcelona, Anderson is City’s new No 6 – charged with controlling the game, serving up incisive passes and mopping up, as he did expertly in his area to snuff one Cherries move out. Yet Anderson and his teammates were nowhere when torn apart by the sequence that closed with Marcus Tavernier’s opener. From the visitors’s right-back corridor the ball was flipped upfield.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
