Two names carry the early-season ratings

Seven matches. No draws, no defeats. Enzo Maresca has made it through the opening stretch of his Manchester City tenure without once having to explain dropped points — a statistic that sounds almost implausible until you check it.

Five of those results have come in the Premier League. The other two arrived in competitions where City have also made positive starts: the Champions League and the Carabao Cup.

An early-season player ratings review from the Manchester Evening News has identified the two men most responsible for that run.

Guehi's immediate impact

Marc Guehi arrived in the summer, and the switch already looks like shrewd business. The defender was handed a 9/10 rating in the review, which named him City's best defender so far this season.

His influence at the back has been matched only by Erling Haaland's usual menace up front. City kept four clean sheets in a row during September — the kind of defensive run that gives a new manager something to build on.

For a player settling into a new squad, that kind of consistency is rare enough. To do it while the team is still learning the manager's methods makes it more impressive.

Haaland doing Haaland things

Haaland also picked up a 9/10 in the same review. He has scored five Premier League goals this season, three of them opening goals, and added a brace away at Porto.

That's the striker's job, of course. The goals are expected. The timing of them — three times breaking the deadlock — is what separates a good start from a transformative one.

Maresca has already shown a willingness to rotate, as seen in coverage of the Carabao Cup rotation options against Norwich. That approach has kept the squad fresh through a busy opening month.

The one blemish

The one blemish on an otherwise flawless run came in the Manchester derby, where Phil Foden was sent off.

It says something about the start City have made that a red card in a derby barely registers as a setback. The results kept coming regardless.

Seven games, no draws, no defeats. The ratings may only tell part of the story, but they point to two players setting the standard for everyone else.