Cherki's Five-Minute Masterclass Lights Up Selhurst Park as City Stay Perfect
Rayan Cherki scored two goals in five minutes to lead Manchester City to a 4-1 win at Crystal Palace, making it back-to-back victories at the start of Enzo Maresca's reign as manager.
Erling Haaland had already given City the lead with a headed opener, and when the Norwegian added a second, the visitors looked comfortable at Selhurst Park. Palace pulled one back and briefly sensed a way back into the match. Then Cherki intervened twice in quick succession to settle it.
His first came nine minutes into the second half with City leading 1-0 and Palace hoping to mount a recovery. Phil Foden found Cherki on the edge of the area — the box that sits in front of goal, where space is tightest and defenders close fastest. The 22-year-old Frenchman dribbled past four Palace defenders and poked a left-foot finish past goalkeeper Dean Henderson.
Three minutes later, after Palace had narrowed the gap, Cherki restored City's two-goal cushion with a rising right-foot shot from 20 yards, again beating Henderson. Two goals, five minutes, both feet. He told City's official website afterward that the first strike was pure instinct.
Cherki now has four goal involvements — goals plus assists — in his first two Premier League matches of the season, according to Manchester City's match coverage. Last season, his first at the club, he scored five goals and provided three assists across 33 league appearances. He had also scored at Selhurst Park in a 2-2 draw the previous December. Selhurst Park is clearly becoming a favourite hunting ground.
What made this performance stand out went beyond the finishing. Maresca, who took over from Pep Guardiola in the summer, praised Cherki's work without the ball — the running and pressing that forwards are sometimes reluctant to do. The manager revealed that Cherki had been given a specific job: shadowing Adam Wharton, Palace's talented young midfielder, who City have reportedly been scouting as a potential signing before the transfer window closes. Cherki, in Maresca's words, "controlled him" throughout the match.
That detail carries its own intrigue. City monitoring a player they faced on the pitch, while their own new signing effectively neutralises him, is the kind of subplot that makes a football season feel alive. The transfer window — the twice-yearly period when clubs can buy and sell players — remains open, and Wharton's name is one to watch.
For City, the broader story is how quickly life after Guardiola has settled. The BBC reported that this win and performance suggested talk of an inevitable decline has been "greatly exaggerated" — a nod to those who wondered whether the club could sustain excellence without the manager who defined their era. Two matches into the new season, Maresca has two wins, his team has scored freely, and Cherki looks like a player growing into something special.
Haaland's brace — two goals in one match — was the kind of ruthless finishing that has defined his time in English football. But the night belonged to Cherki, whose five-minute burst turned a competitive away fixture into a comfortable procession and spoiled Pierre Sage's welcome party as Palace's new manager.
Maresca could hardly have asked for more. City are top of the early table, playing with fluency, and their new manager has a signature performance to build on. For the rest of the league, the warning signs are already there.
