Enzo Maresca has said Manchester City’s summer spending spree was needed if they are to challenge Arsenal this season.
City handed debuts to Enzo Fernández and Iliman Ndiaye in their 1-0 win over Coventry on Sunday after both arrived on deadline day.
The pair were the final pieces of a summer rebuild which cost more than £450 million ($609m). And after beating Coventry, Maresca was keen to justify the spend after keeping a close eye on Arsenal’s start to the Premier League campaign.
“If you see since the Community Shield, Arsenal play two more games [against Coventry and Aston Villa] and they have five changes in every game,” said the City boss.
“Two World Cup winners, [Mikel] Merino and [Martin] Zubimendi, two England players, [Eberechi] Eze and [Noni] Madueke, and the other one I don’t remember, I think it was [Piero] Hincapie.
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“In the end, if you want to be there you need options. Arsenal have options. We have options. More teams have options so it’s not just us. I’m very happy with the options we have, that is something important for us if you want to compete.”
Fernández, who arrived at the Etihad Stadium in a joint British record £125m ($169m) deal on deadline day, was initially named on the bench against Coventry before getting a late call-up to replace Nico O’Reilly, who was injured in the warm-up.
Ndiaye started on the left and Ayyoub Bouaddi came off the bench in the second half.
But all the new faces were upstaged by another summer signing, Elliot Anderson, who was named man-of-the-match after completing more passes than the entire Coventry team combined.
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“Really impressed, but not just today,” said Maresca.
“He was very good against Palace. He was also very good against Bournemouth having only been one week with us when we changed him for cramp.
“But the best thing with Elliot is the day by day. He is asking how he can learn, we sit with him in one-on-one video [analysis] and he wants to be better and that is the best thing for any player.”
