Enzo Maresca's Manchester City made it two wins from two in the Premier League with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Friday night — and once again it was Rayan Cherki and Erling Haaland who provided the fireworks.

Cherki: one of the Premier League's main characters

The little glares at Palace's fans when he celebrated his two fantastic goals earned Cherki a colourful send-off when he was withdrawn late on, and that is exactly the kind of thing that could make him the English top flight's biggest star. Cherki is enigmatic, an artist, and he is up for the fight.

His first goal here was very similar to the one he scored against Arsenal at the end of last season — like in a superhero movie when the protagonist slows down time and dodges fists and bullets with ease, in total control of the situation. When he is in full flow, it is like he is one step ahead of everybody else, and his goal to put City 2-1 up was arguably even more exquisite than the one against Mikel Arteta's side.

It is a mild shame that there was a deflection on his second, but the way he strode towards the Palace area and slammed the ball in is another one of those moments when fans around the world will have sent messages to their group chats to ask if their friends had seen what Cherki did. He registered two assists in City's 2-1 win against Bournemouth and was City's main character on Friday night; Cherki could very easily become the fulcrum of this new-look team.

The inevitability of Erling Haaland

Haaland now has 10 goals in six appearances against Palace, and while he may not have looked at his sharpest on the opening weekend, he was at his clinical best on Friday night in south London. He has not always been the best in the air, despite his huge frame, but his header to open the scoring was beautifully judged, looping dramatically up into the air and back underneath the crossbar.

Crystal Palace actually started the brighter of the two sides, fashioning three shots in the first five minutes, but Haaland connected with Semenyo's cross in the 17th minute to send a looping header over Dean Henderson and into the net. It was one of six shots on target for City in the opening 45 minutes — the last time they managed more in the first half of a Premier League game was in May 2024.

Cherki put City two up in the 54th minute after some wonderful footwork, only for Palace to hit back almost immediately when Yeremy Pino's free kick hit the woodwork and went in off Gianluigi Donnarumma. Cherki capped a frantic five minutes by scoring his second to restore City's two-goal advantage, and Haaland added City's fourth with an emphatic finish to really take the game away from Palace. He looked up for this one from the first minute, harrying the Palace defenders and getting back to clear set pieces.

Guehi back in a familiar role

The line-up revelation at Selhurst Park was Maresca slotting Marc Guehi back into central defence, with Josko Gvardiol at left-back and Nico O'Reilly stationed in midfield alongside Elliot Anderson.

Before the game, Maresca told Sky Sports that he wanted Guehi in midfield against Bournemouth last weekend because he needed more bite in the middle of the pitch.

“After the Arsenal game (in the Community Shield), we struggled a little bit in the middle of the pitch. You need strong midfielders. Marc can do that.” — Enzo Maresca

Guehi certainly did do that, especially when winning the ball back. Even so, Maresca never planned to ask him to do the same again at Selhurst Park and so it was back to defence, and Guehi was no less busy. With City's system asking Gvardiol to leave his left-back position to join the attack or press high, it left Guehi with a lot of covering to do, and Palace were very keen to exploit those spaces. Guehi had to be on guard and, in a completely different way from last weekend, he was impressive yet again.

City's recent transfer record is under deserved scrutiny after jettisoning many of the players who had been signed in the last two years, but Guehi, who arrived in January, and Cherki are huge assets.

Why City still have work to do in the transfer window

It is a good job that City did not urgently need their bench on Friday night because it was as light as it has been in recent seasons, including during injury crises. Beyond Jeremy Doku, they do not really have any injury worries — it is just that they have sold their fringe players and have yet to bring in replacements.

Mateo Kovacic came on in the final 20 minutes, replacing Gvardiol, who had a slight limp. Kovacic had started all of City's four pre-season matches, including the Community Shield, but he was left out for Guehi against Bournemouth, a sign of the Croatian's standing in the midfield pecking order. With 10 minutes left, two 18-year-olds came on — Ayyoub Bouaddi, making his debut after his £86million ($116m) move from Lille, and winger Ryan McAidoo, who is very promising and could feature in the domestic cups this season, but hardly represents fantastic squad depth.

With Jack Grealish left out as he prepares for a move away, it was glaringly obvious that City need at least three new players to give them any sort of options this season. Allan is set to join from Palmeiras and they are trying to complete deals for Enzo Fernandez and Iliman Ndiaye, but the bench this evening does suggest that they might even need another (even if the first XI's performances suggest things are ticking along quite well).

What did Maresca say?

The City boss was delighted with Cherki and his team's performance. Speaking to Sky Sports after the game he said:

“He's helping us. He's going to help us in the future. We know he's a quality player, last game against Bournemouth with two assists, today with two goals. But I think Rayan was very good off the ball. He was in control of Wharton and he worked very hard.

“It is a tough ground. We knew it before the game. You saw it in the first few minutes of the game. But then we were in control. The intensity, the desire of the team has been very good.”

Maresca felt comfortable enough to bring on Bouaddi for his City debut, and the manager will hope for a similar level of control when his side welcome Coventry City to the Etihad on Saturday, September 5 (3pm UK, 10am ET).