Man City 2-0 Wolves: Omar Marmoush is called a “special player” by Pep Guardiola.

Saturday also saw the two eye-catching January signings start together for the first time, with Marc Guehi helping the side keep a clean sheet on his debut.

The 25-year-old showed composure and confidence at centre-back, completing 95 passes from 102 attempts, while recovering the ball four times and contributing to two interceptions.

Guehi fills the hole left in City’s defense after injuries to Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol, but he appears to have hit the ground running, as has Antoine Semenyo, who has now scored three goals for the club since joining from Bournemouth.

“Antoine did something incredible [impact] In Bournemouth it is not necessary to say [you] “About Mark and who he is. Captain of Crystal Palace, your country’s national team and he knows everything. You had a feeling from day one,” Guardiola said.

“They came six months ago, they’ve been coming for many years, so the transfer is a really good prize and they’re at the perfect age – 25, 26 – so he’s a great signing for Manchester City for many years. He’s a guy you can count on.”

“You see – two training sessions, how he moves, how he talks, how he sees what’s happening around him, reads situations. Really good.”

Currently, City have closed the gap on leaders Arsenal to four points and will rely on the service of rivals Manchester United when they play at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

“It’s too early to say Manchester City are back. They were playing at home against the team bottom of the table,” former England captain Alan Shearer told BBC Sport.

“We know how much they have relied on Erling Haaland this season, so it was interesting to see Pep try something different today with Marmoush and Semenyu and there were some promising signs but there are much bigger tests ahead.”