Enzo Maresca beats Guardiola’s start: Man City’s next test

Enzo Maresca became the first manager to win his opening seven Premier League games in charge of a club when Manchester City beat Ipswich 3-2 on Saturday. The next challenge is keeping that winning side fresh enough to sustain its start.

City already have an encouraging example of how to do it. Ayyoub Bouaddi’s first league start brought substantial involvement in midfield, while Phil Foden returned to the XI and scored.

Those contributions matter when Maresca has been discussing rest for senior players and now has five fitness concerns to assess. Winning while changing the team could become one of the most important measures of his management.

Enzo Maresca’s record puts him ahead of three familiar names

City’s official record announcement places Maresca above Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti and Ole Gunnar Solskjær, who each won their first six Premier League matches with City, Chelsea and Manchester United respectively.

This measures consecutive league wins from the beginning of a managerial spell at a club. Maresca has taken all 21 available points from his first seven City league games.

There is also a separate season-opening benchmark within reach. Chelsea began 2005-06 with nine consecutive victories and Liverpool started 2019-20 with eight. City have now reached seven.

For Maresca, the immediate value is the room those points provide to develop his team. He can introduce different combinations from a position of strength, with evidence that his approach is producing results.

Bouaddi gives City a reason to trust their alternatives

Maresca made six changes after the midweek defeat by Paris Saint-Germain. As our City 3-2 Ipswich report details, Foden marked his return with the opening goal and Bouaddi received his first Premier League start.

City’s assessment of Bouaddi’s performance credits him with 92 touches, seven ground duels won and seven passes which broke opposition lines. He had previously made three league appearances from the bench.

That is useful evidence of involvement across different parts of the midfielder’s job: offering for the ball, competing for possession and moving it through the opposition.

The numbers cannot establish how he would perform against every opponent. They do give Maresca a stronger basis for selecting him again.

Our reading is that Bouaddi’s contribution matters because rotation needs players who can take responsibility immediately. Simply changing names on the team sheet achieves little if the replacements leave the same senior figures carrying the game. Saturday gave City an example of a newcomer taking an active share of the work.

The need for rest was already on Maresca’s mind

Before Ipswich, Maresca had discussed finding opportunities to rest Haaland. He also named Elliot Anderson, Enzo Fernández, Marc Guéhi and Rúben Dias when explaining the demands of combining club and international football.

Then came Saturday’s fitness concerns involving Haaland, Antoine Semenyo, Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly.

Maresca said Haaland, Kovacic and Nunes had told him they were okay. He described O’Reilly’s problem as the same back issue experienced against Coventry, while Semenyo required further assessment. No confirmation of availability accompanied those self-reports, and no recovery timetable was given for Semenyo.

Our Haaland injury update sets out the position for all five players.

The reports do not establish that workload caused these problems. The selection challenge is still clear: Maresca must decide who can play, who would benefit from a break and which combinations can preserve City’s effectiveness.

AEK offers the next selection test

City host AEK Athens in the Champions League on Tuesday 20 October. Maresca’s pre-match press conference is scheduled for 1.30pm on Monday, when there may be firmer information about availability.

His choices will be revealing. Resting a player only helps if the side can still function well enough to avoid needing an emergency rescue from the bench.

Bouaddi’s performance and Foden’s scoring return offer encouragement. City won after making substantial changes, even if Ipswich kept the contest alive until the closing stages.

Maresca has secured a place in the record books. Building enough trusted combinations to carry City through successive league and European fixtures is how he can turn that exceptional beginning into something that lasts.