Enzo Maresca is proving Pep Guardiola was right to leave Man City, Howard Webb has to go after Man City howler – and the two players who could be in Thomas Tuchel’s squad this week: IAN LADYMAN on My Football Weekend

If Enzo Maresca is lucky we will one day look back and ask when it was we finally felt he had truly taken hold of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and claimed it as his own.

If he is really lucky and if he does enough and wins enough to stick around for the long-term, then we may reflect on derby day in September 2026 as the day we finally drew a line under the years of Guardiola genius.

So far it’s been a slow burn for Maresca at City and that’s because Guardiola still has his name and his principles running right through this City team. Phil Foden, Erling Haaland, Ruben Dias, Rayan Cherki. It’s impossible not to see the great Catalan in so much of what they do.

Equally, it was possible to watch Maresca during Sunday’s win at Manchester United and finally realise and understand that Guardiola was absolutely right to go when he did.

Watch Guardiola on the latest City fly-on-the-wall documentary and you see a man starting to wilt and fray at the edges, a great coach sagging under the weight of ten years of work and expectation and responsibility. A man who by his own admission had very little that was new or fresh to give.

And then you watch Maresca bound down the touch line at full-time – you watch his 10-man team hold Manchester United at bay with cussedness and wit – and suddenly you feel you can see into the future.

City were fired up to win the Manchester derby after going down to 10 men in the first half

You see all the energy and vibrancy and freshness that was missing last season. You see a coach nine years younger than his predecessor straining to prove himself to the world just like Guardiola once did.

You see it in his players too. You see it in a player like Elliot Anderson, growing impressively into life at a top club. And you see it in a player like Enzo Fernandez, ready perhaps to show what one can become once you are freed from the circus show that was life at Chelsea.

I was never a fan of Maresca at Stamford Bridge. In fact that is an understatement. I found him an abrasive character whose personality seemed to infect his team. Chelsea were horrible and ugly to watch and, at least in part, I blamed the manager.

But now he, too, is free from that chaos and it shows. Sunday’s derby was a hard watch and ultimately a hard win. But City are four from four in the Premier League and seem ready to stand toe to toe with champions Arsenal.

We have not even reached the first international break yet so we would be wise to tread cautiously. But City look invigorated and rebooted. They look as though they are still learning about Maresca and he about them.

Importantly they look liberated. When Guardiola looked at his players last season he didn’t often see what he hoped to see staring back at him. Typically, he knew it was time to go before we did.

Maresca’s fortune was to be the next one invited through the door. The first thing the Italian appears to have done is bring back a little of the joy. It feels overdue.

REF SHAMBLES IS ON WEBB 

Embarrassing. Shambolic. Inept. We have used those words after Manchester derbies before only this time we are not talking about the vanquished team in red.

Manchester United need some work. There is no doubt about that. But they were ultimately beaten by the VAR team on this occasion and how much more of this do we have to take before referees’ chief Howard Webb admits liability and passes the job on to someone else?

Webb – head of the referees’ body in England – is a good guy with sound motives around such subjects as accountability and visibility. He has tried to move things forward.

Howard Webb should be held accountable for VAR’s crucial mistake in the Manchester derby

But after a VAR cock-up at Sunderland on Saturday and then the mother of all disasters at Old Trafford, the reputation of our officials continues to disappear down the drain.

Regrettably, Webb has ultimate responsibility for that. His gig, his refs, his show. If they get it right, it’s on him. If they get it wrong, it’s on him.

And right now there is too much wrong, too much catastrophically wrong, for Webb to defend.

Having to write letters to a club like United to apologise for a mistake made in the biggest game of the Premier League weekend reflects abysmally on the body we now call Pro Ref. The name has changed but nothing else has.

It seems that some of Webb’s officials simply don’t know the laws or the game. Or if they do, they don’t know how to apply them.

How can this be? How have we got here? And can we rely on Webb to guide us all back again?

I am not sure we can. It may – sooner or later – be time for a change.

ARTETA CLAIM IS A BIT RICH

It feels ironic that after two years and more of Arsenal getting away with murder at corners and set pieces they finally end up on the wrong end of what is on overdue clampdown on grappling and wrestling.

How the VAR officials didn’t realise that Ezri Konsa was pulled to the ground by Sunderland defender Dan Ballard after referee John Brooks had called it the other way round seemed set to sit as the worst oversight of the weekend before events at Old Trafford stole their thunder a day later.

Mikel Arteta’s claim that referees need to ‘protect the game’ landed rather hypocritically

Certainly Sunderland shouldn’t have been awarded their spot-kick – ultimately saved by David Raya – but for Arteta to subsequently talk about an obligation on referees to ‘protect the game’ was a bit rich.

His players, after all, have been pushing right at the edges of what is legal at set pieces for so long it has become an indelible part of the champions’ identity.

Arteta spoke of his love for the ‘beautiful game’ this week. At times he has appeared to take liberties with the meaning of the word.

BIN THE USELESS CHAT

I have listened to Marc Guehi talk enough times on England duty to know the City defender is not prone to giving much away. Some footballers are like that and it’s entirely their prerogative. They are paid to play, not talk.

Suffice to say, then, that when I saw Patrick Davison attempting to glean some insight from Guehi at half-time on Sky that I rather knew how it was going to end.

Davison did his best. As indeed he did when moving on to what we could generously call a chat with United manager Michael Carrick as he exited the tunnel for the start of the second half.

But what did we learn? Nothing, of course. What was said of interest? Nothing, of course.

These interval exchanges of utter nothingness are now part of the TV rights holders’ package of entitlement for this season and are an utter waste of time.

Footballers and managers are asked to do more and more media these days as SKY, TNT and the rest seek full return on the millions of pounds they invest in the Premier League this season.

But this is a step too far. Nobody wants or needs it. Play some white noise if you have too. It would be cheaper and in all likelihood more interesting.

QUIZ TIME

Question: Which former star of both Manchester clubs remains so in love with United that he was seen and heard belting out ‘Take me Home, United road.’ in the Old Trafford press box before kick-off yesterday? He was also getting rather angry as the game slipped away from United.

*Answer at foot of the page.

WILL THE REAL MARTINEZ PLEASE STAND UP?

Raya’s performance at the Stadium of Light only strengthened my view expressed last week that he is now the best goalkeeper in the Premier League.

At Chelsea, meanwhile, they are still waiting to see what version of Emi Martinez has turned up at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea’s capture of Martinez for £7.5m is understandably viewed as a steal in these days of sky high transfer fees. It may well turn out to be so. But that overlooks the fact that he was rarely at his brilliant best for Villa last season.

Martinez, 34, was fabulous for Argentina in the World Cup final but he was erratic in the draw against Hull on Saturday. Chelsea have long since needed some calm in goal. We wait to see if this one actually works out.

SOLANKE KEY TO SPURS CHANCES  

There was actually some better attacking football from Tottenham – particularly in the first half – in their draw against Everton but the fact Roberto de Zerbi’s team still haven’t scored a Premier League goal is starting to have a pub quiz ring to it.

Omar Marmoush – recently signed from Manchester City – always carries a threat but it feels as though he is more productive playing behind a centre forward than he is when asked to lead the line on his own. 

The question is whether Dominic Solanke is really good enough to take Spurs where they wish to go as that central striker.

The 28-year-old cost £55m two summers ago but only has 12 league goals to his name.

It’s fair to say, he has something to prove.

Dominic Solanke has to prove his worth in attack amid Tottenham’s worrying goal drought

GRAVITY WILL TAKE ITS TOLL ON BRAVE EVERTON

Tottenham do at least have a strong bench these days. Against Everton, De Zerbi’s options as substitutes included James Maddison, Mohammed Kudus, Lucas Bergvall and Connor Gallagher. It feels as though progress must come.

But Everton – unbeaten so far – are not so blessed which rather makes a mockery of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s assertion that David Moyes’ team can challenge for Europe this season.

Dewsbury-Hall is an intelligent footballer and has bought in to Moyes’ team-orientated philosophy on Merseyside. But it’s impossible to escape the fact that a dreadful transfer window has left Everton open to the forces of gravity.

Everton sit eighth in the Premier League and all credit to them for draws against Spurs, Manchester United and Bournemouth and a win over Crystal Palace. It’s been an incredible early season effort.

But logic tells us it simply can’t last and it won’t.

COVENTRY BLUES BAD NEWS FOR THE FA

Frank Lampard’s problems at Coventry – last season’s Championship winners are also yet to score a goal – may yet prove to be an issue for the FA.

The Coventry manager has long since been identified as a potential England manager by the national governing body.

But that’s going to be a hard sell to the public if the 48-year-old doesn’t make a go of it in the top-flight with Coventry.

It’s early days for the Sky Blues on their return to the Premier League and common sense would suggest Lampard gets a long stretch to make things right. It was notable yesterday that after a thumping 5-0 home defeat to Brighton, he was still getting backed to the hilt by the home fans.

But since when did common sense and fan opinion have a home in the football world?

Lampard, of course, has already had two middling spells in the top division, at Chelsea and Everton. He really needs to get this one right.

Coventry’s poor start to the season under Frank Lampard continued with a 5-0 loss to Brighton 

TUCHEL EYES KING AND SCOTT

Current England manager Thomas Tuchel has a big date in his diary for this Friday when he names his first squad since the World Cup.

With that Atlanta surrender against Argentina still fresh in everybody’s mind, Tuchel will be under pressure to make some changes for the four Nations League games against Spain, Croatia and Czechia (twice) that make up a mammoth three-week international break later this month.

Tuchel took 26 players to America whereas this will be a 23-man party.

So three names will have to go at least and it feels as though there will be significantly more casualties with Cole Palmer and Phil Foden pushing for returns and good early season form from Bournemouth’s Alex Scott and Fulham’s Josh King – watched in person by Tuchel nine days ago – places them at the front of the queue for what feels like an inevitable midfield reshuffle.

EMERY RISK UNDERMINES VILLA

Aston Villa’s decision to place the Europa League trophy in the players’ tunnel ahead of their game with Nottingham Forest was certainly ballsy given that it was their midlands rivals they beat in the semi-final en route to last season’s triumph in Istanbul.

If the Forest players were fired up by having to walk past a trophy they came close to winning then they used it to their advantage in a one-sided game that featured a welcome return to form for striker Liam Delap. His opening goal – rifled in from 25 yards – was his first in 28 games.

Using all five substitutes before Ian Maatsen’s injury was a risk from Aston Villa’s Unai Emery

Villa are doing it tough with one point and one goal from four Premier League games and weren’t helped by their manager Unai Emery on Saturday.

Emery had used all five subs by the time Ian Maatsen left the field injured late in the piece. In fact Emery had used them all by the 63rd minute and whichever way you look at it, that’s a risk.

*QUIZ ANSWER: Peter Schmeichel.