After helping Manchester City see off Salford City by coming off the bench to add a probably-needed second goal, Marc Guehi walked around the Etihad Stadium pitch deep in conversation with John Stones.
Guehi did most of the talking, gesticulating with his arms to help make whatever his point was, as he gave off the vibe of a new boy explaining, with some surprise, the kind of things he was seeing and doing. Stones, meanwhile, nodded along knowingly, very much with the air of ‘been there, done that’.
Guehi could barely have wished for a better start to life at City since his January move from Crystal Palace.
Pound for pound, his goal against Salford was probably the least consequential of his contributions since he joined from Crystal Palace, given the level of opposition compared to his Premier League outings, especially as he won man of the match against Fulham on Wednesday, a few days after a brilliant performance against Liverpool at Anfield.
He had impressed right away, not just in his debut against Wolves but even sooner.
“You have the feeling from day one,” Pep Guardiola said. “I remember Ruben (Dias) in terms of being incredibly focused in every action — win duels.
“With the ball, he (Guehi) has incredible composure and we didn’t train anything yet! But I think when we have the feeling with the people in the midfield and the middle moves a little bit better…”
Guardiola continued, wandering off into thoughts about how his other newcomers need to work out where to stand when City’s goalkeepers and defenders have the ball, but his immediate point was obvious in that Wolves game; this is a centre-back who is fully switched on, reads the game brilliantly and is strong in the challenge.
“He’s a guy you can rely on. I see it in two sessions. How he sees, how he moves, how he talks, how he reads the situations.”
It was that reading of the game that settled any City nerves on Saturday, and it was an intervention that was needed given their struggles on the day. Guardiola’s side had gone ahead after just six minutes against League Two Salford, giving the impression that another 8-0 — the scoreline from the third round last season — was on the cards, but by the 65th minute Guardiola brought on Antoine Semenyo, Nico O’Reilly and Guehi, to give his side a lift (and to give them some minutes, most likely).
Guehi’s goal settled a tie that was closer than many imagined it might be (Annabel Lee-Ellis/Getty Images)
Guehi’s goal was befitting of the occasion; it did not come from any great invention, but rather a Rayan Cherki ball into the box that goalkeeper Matthew Young parried out into the middle of the box. Cue Guehi, who, with his ability to read situations, pounced on the loose ball and allayed any doubts. It was a somewhat scrappy goal, yet one that highlighted the kind of attributes that have made such a difference already.
City had been poor on an afternoon when Guardiola gave opportunities to players with plenty of first-team minutes to their names this season, but at the same time plenty of points to prove. Cherki, Phil Foden, Tijjani Reijnders and Omar Marmoush are fairly regular starters but cannot be sure from one game to the next if they will be on the team sheet.
Others, by comparison, are far more assured of their place, and seemingly more trusted by Guardiola. Rodri, Bernardo Silva and Nico O’Reilly seem shoo-ins in midfield, Antoine Semenyo and Erling Haaland generally get places up front, and the defence tends to pick itself at the moment.
Guehi is very much part of that already.
“Playing good or bad, I don’t care,” Guardiola said last week. “He’s a great, great, great — you smell it — signing for Man City for the next five, six, seven, eight years. Top, top. It’s not (just) the skills, it’s the mentality, professionalism, how he lives many, many things to be a good, good central defender.”
It may have been partly circumstantial but when Rodri was withdrawn in the final stages of City’s game at Tottenham on February 1, he offered Guehi the captain’s armband — it was just his second game for the club. Perhaps as a result of that, Guehi passed it straight on to O’Reilly, who is himself only 20 but has been at the club his whole life, and is quickly becoming a mainstay in the side.
Guardiola is a big fan of Guehi already (Oli SCARFF / AFP via Getty Images)
Guardiola had even urged his City employers to ask the EFL if they would let Guehi play in the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal, although he knew the answer would always be ‘no’, and he must have been delighted that a tweak in the rules meant that Guehi actually could start for City against Salford, given he had already turned out for Palace in the holders’ third-round defeat at Macclesfield.
He struggled on the plastic pitch south of Manchester as Palace’s problematic season continued, but he was planning on staying with the Eagles for the season until City ramped up their interest in light of injuries to Dias and Josko Gvardiol at the start of January.
Guardiola has compared it to City’s capture of Manuel Akanji at the start of the 2022-23 season — the Catalan was convinced that the club needed one more defender, due to injuries, and with his future up in the air, City scoured the market to find a bargain buy, partly to bolster the team, partly as a ‘gift’ to Guardiola in their efforts to convince him to stay (he signed a new deal two months later).
Guehi’s arrival may not have such a significant impact on the manager’s future but it has done on the team. He looked amazed last weekend when told, after City’s dramatic 2-1 victory against Liverpool, that it was City’s first victory at Anfield — in front of fans — since 2003.
Better City sides than this one have tried and failed to beat Liverpool on their own patch and even if the eventually victorious side wobbled last Sunday, Guehi was a big part of the reason they battled through the storm that came their way in the second half.
At their best, City will stop those kinds of situations before they happen, but right now the best they can hope for is to throw bodies on the line, battle and scrap. There is a silkier side to Guehi’s game but those physical qualities were on full display at Anfield, and he backed it up with more of the same against Fulham, making a series of fine interventions as the Londoners mounted their own pressure.
Guardiola’s big challenge is for City to get far more control of matches and only then can they dream of playing like they used to but, whether they do that or not, Guehi looks to be a major asset.