Maresca Era Begins: Manchester City Faces Bournemouth
The banners for Pep Guardiola will still hang at the Etihad on Sunday, but the touchline belongs to Enzo Maresca now. His first Premier League assignment as Manchester City manager comes against Bournemouth, a gentle fixture on paper, loaded with pressure in reality.
A decade of Guardiola brought six league titles and a Champions League. That kind of dominance doesn’t quietly fade into the background. It looms. Maresca’s first taste of competitive action, a Community Shield defeat to Arsenal, underlined how hard it will be to follow. Sunday offers the first real chance to change the conversation.
This is no soft launch. It’s a home opener, under the cameras, with the champions expected to look like champions again.
Selection Headaches and a New-Look Attack
Maresca’s plans have already taken a hit. Jeremy Doku, the livewire winger who stretches defences and drags full-backs into panic, is out. He aggravated a calf problem during that Community Shield loss and has been ruled out for two to three weeks.
Savinho will not be involved either, with a move to Tottenham Hotspur in motion. Omar Marmoush is likely to follow the same path out of the squad if his own switch to north London is completed in time. The wide options that once looked stacked suddenly feel thin.
There is at least one boost. Matheus Nunes is back in contention after missing the Arsenal game with a minor muscle issue. Maresca is ready to trust him at right-back, where he could come in for Abdukodir Khusanov and add a more progressive feel to the back line.
With Doku missing, the solution on the left feels obvious and familiar. Jack Grealish is expected to start there, just as he did after coming off the bench in the Community Shield. On the opposite flank, Antoine Semenyo faces his former club after joining from Bournemouth in January, a neat early twist to the narrative.
Phil Foden, the player many expect Maresca to build around, keeps the central role behind Erling Haaland. Elliot Anderson, a headline summer signing, continues alongside Mateo Kovačić in central midfield as City try to settle one of their most significant additions into the rhythm of the side.
Haaland’s August Habit
Whatever the tactical tweaks, one thing remains brutally simple: City still have Haaland. And August belongs to him.
The Norwegian has scored seven goals in his last four Premier League opening weekends. Across his career, he has 22 in just 14 appearances in August. Those are not just good numbers; they are a guarantee. While Maresca reshapes the structure around him, Haaland offers a fixed point, a ruthless target for every attack.
Behind him, Gianluigi Donnarumma continues in goal, a towering presence behind a back four likely to feature Nunes, Rúben Dias, Joško Gvardiol and Nico O'Reilly. It’s a blend of power, youth and technical quality that fits the Maresca blueprint: defenders who can defend, but also build.
How City Could Line Up
Maresca is expected to stick with a 4-2-3-1 shape, built to dominate the ball and keep Foden and Haaland close to goal:
Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O'Reilly; Anderson, Kovačić; Semenyo, Foden, Grealish; Haaland.
It’s a side that carries familiar menace, even with Doku absent and transfer noise swirling around the fringes of the squad. The core is still there. The expectation is still there.
Kick-off, Coverage and the New Reality
The match kicks off at 14:00 BST on Sunday, 23 August 2026, live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League in the UK. Millions will tune in not just to see if City win, but to see what they look like now.
Guardiola’s City was one of the defining teams of an era. Maresca’s version starts here. Does it simply protect the throne, or try to build something different on top of it?
