Manchester City laboured to a 2-0 victory over Salford City in the FA Cup fourth round.
Despite having the vast majority of possession against the League Two side, and beating them 8-0 a year ago in the third round of the same competition, Pep Guardiola’s team had to rely on an Alfie Dorrington own goal after six minutes to break the deadlock following a Rayan Ait-Nouri cross.
It was more of the same in the second half and, and while City were the dominant team, the away side created chances of their own and were perhaps unlucky not to get an equaliser. While substitute Marc Guehi doubled the lead with 10 minutes remaining, and Antoine Semenyo hit the post late on, it could not disguise the home side’s struggles.
Here, Sam Lee breaks down the big talking points of the game ahead of the fifth-round draw on Monday.
Why did City struggle for so long?
This was a terrible match. After last year’s win over the same team, slap bang in the middle of their lowest period of the Guardiola era, and the early Dorrington own goal, this meeting seemed to be heading the same way.
City, though, sleepwalked their way to half-time, having all of the ball but few chances. The visitors were brave enough to leave a striker on the halfway line when City had the ball on the edge of the Salford box, something Premier League sides do not do, and the other nine outfielders were compact enough to snuff out the best efforts of Rayan Cherki, Phil Foden and Tijjani Reijnders, who tried to combine with one-twos.
Dorrington scores the own goal (Photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images
Ryan McAidoo, the 17-year-old who replaced injured Max Alleyne, was stationed on the right but always wanted to cut inside, narrowing the shape even further. Omar Marmoush did score a fine goal that was wrongly ruled out for offside, but Salford had three good chances, including a Brandon Cooper free header wide on the stroke of half-time.
City have struggled in the second half of almost every game this calendar year, and it was similar here, with even the stale possession disappearing as Salford got forward more.
Substitute impact
Guardiola looked annoyed well before half-time and as the second half went on he made a glut of substitutions in an attempt to get things under control again — and perhaps to get a few minutes into the legs considering City have a rare midweek off, meaning anybody who did not play today would have had 10 days off between Wednesday’s win over Fulham and next Saturday’s game with Newcastle. That is too much in Guardiola’s book.
But this game also needed a spark, and the manager turned to Semenyo, Guehi and Nico O’Reilly in a triple change after 65 minutes, and then Rodri 10 minutes later. The threat of an equaliser did subside as a result, and then Guehi was alert enough to pounce on a loose ball in the box to put the game to bed.
How well did Stones play?
Stones was a bit rusty (Photo: Oli SCARFF / AFP via Getty Images)
Any time Stones is on the pitch, it will be welcomed by both himself and the City fans, given his struggles over the past two seasons (and in truth for much of his time at the club) and how well regarded he is. It looks inevitable he will leave the club this summer when his contract expires, which would be a sad way for things to have gone since he was so influential in winning the treble in 2023.
Stones was starting his first game since November 25th, and by this point, his list of injury problems seems, from the outside, to have left Guardiola and even Stones himself doubting whether his body can sustain a proper run in the team between now and May. He looked a little rusty here, as you might expect, and two of Salford’s three chances in the first half came not long after he wafted a leg at a long ball forward, rather than dealing with it any more decisively.
There was a lovely clipped pass out to the right in the first half and a majestic sliding tackle in the second, and he was withdrawn for Guehi, presumably as he was never going to play 90 minutes. Ruben Dias is coming back to fitness now, Guehi has started brilliantly, and Abdukodir Khusanov has done well, too, so there is plenty of competition for places, but any glimpse of Stones will be well received for sure.
What did Guardiola say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.
What next for City?
Saturday, February 21: Newcastle (Home), Premier League, 8pm UK, 3pm ET