Why Marc Guehi is already a player Manchester City can rely on

Marc Guehi’s first fortnight in Manchester City blue has been a blur of decisive interventions, calm conversations with senior team-mates and, crucially, goals that matter. The centre-back’s close-range finish against Salford City on Saturday may have sealed a 2-0 FA Cup fourth-round win over League Two opposition, yet in the context of his fledgling Etihad career it was the exclamation mark on a series of performances that have convinced Pep Guardiola he already has a defender for the next decade.

Introduced in the 65th minute alongside youngsters Nico O’Reilly and Antoine Semenyo, Guehi needed only 12 minutes to settle any lingering anxiety. A Rayan Cherki shot was parried by goalkeeper Matthew Young and the 24-year-old reacted first, smashing in the rebound. It was not a strike that will feature on end-of-season highlight reels for artistry, but it embodied the anticipation and composure that have fast become his trademarks.

Those qualities were on show days earlier in the Premier League. On the Wednesday he was man of the match in a hard-fought victory over Fulham, following an Anfield display in which he helped blunt a Liverpool onslaught and secure City’s first league win at the ground in front of a crowd since 2003. Guardiola, surveying a back line shredded by injuries to Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol in early January, pushed for the Palace captain’s signature and has been rewarded with performances that belie a player still learning his new team-mates’ names.

“You have the feeling from day one,” the Catalan said, recalling Guehi’s debut against Wolves. “With the ball he has incredible composure and we didn’t train anything yet. 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.”

Guardiola’s trust has already translated into symbolic responsibility. In the closing stages of the February 1 win at Tottenham, Rodri handed the armband to Guehi, only the defender’s second appearance for the club. Startled, he immediately passed it to academy graduate O’Reilly, but the gesture underlined how quickly senior pros have embraced his presence.

The manager’s admiration stretches beyond technique. “Playing good or bad, I don’t care,” he 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 the skills, it’s the mentality, professionalism, how he lives.”

City’s pursuit of Guehi intensified once Palace’s season began to unravel and the England international found himself on a synthetic pitch in a third-round Carabao Cup defeat at Macclesfield. Guardiola even lobbied the EFL to allow the defender to feature in the forthcoming final against Arsenal, knowing regulations would block a cup-tied player. A rule tweak did permit him to start against Salford, and he capitalised.

The comparison inside the club is with Manuel Akanji’s arrival in August 2022, an emergency purchase that became a lynchpin of the Treble campaign. Whether Guehi’s impact reaches those heights remains to be seen, yet the early evidence is compelling. After the final whistle on Saturday he walked the perimeter of the Etihad pitch in animated discussion with John Stones, gesturing as though still processing the speed of his ascent. Stones, the seasoned England international, listened and nodded, the old hand acknowledging the new one.

City laboured for fluency against Salford, fielding a mixture of regulars seeking form and squad players chasing minutes, but Guehi’s intervention ensured there would be no cup upset. More importantly, it offered another reminder that, in a season of transition and injuries, Guardiola has acquired not just a defender but a dependable presence around whom the back line can stabilise.

Manchester City still aspire to the controlled, suffocating football that defined their recent dominance. Until that level returns, they require warriors willing to throw bodies in front of shots and sense danger before it materialises. In Marc Guehi they believe they have found exactly that — and at the perfect time.