Fernandez's £125m arrival gives City the most expensive midfield in the Premier League — but defence lags behind

Manchester City shattered their own transfer record this summer by agreeing a £125m fee with Chelsea for Enzo Fernandez, surpassing the £116m paid to Nottingham Forest for Elliot Anderson just weeks earlier. The Argentine’s arrival completes a midfield overhaul that Enzo Maresca identified as his priority from the moment he replaced Pep Guardiola as manager.

Fernandez has previously operated as a holding midfielder, but Maresca — who worked closely with him at Chelsea — is understood to want the 2022 World Cup winner deployed in a more advanced role, tasked with creating and scoring goals. That vision shaped City’s determination to bring him to the Etihad despite the enormous outlay.

The numbers are staggering. More than £300m has been committed to three midfielders alone: Fernandez, Anderson, and teenage Moroccan sensation Ayyoub Bouaddi, who cost £85m. Add Jeremy Doku, Antoine Semenyo, Rayan Cherki, Phil Foden, and Nico O’Reilly — who started on the left of a front three in City’s opening league fixture against Bournemouth — and Maresca has assembled an attacking roster with few equals in the top flight. Erling Haaland, still the most reliable finisher in the division, anchors it all.

The concern, however, sits at the other end of the pitch. Nathan Ake has been sold to Fenerbahce and John Stones has joined Inter Milan, leaving City’s defensive options noticeably thinner. In last month’s Community Shield, Arsenal dismantled them with ease. Three games into the new Premier League season, City have yet to keep a clean sheet.

Maresca is reportedly weighing up deploying Marc Guehi alongside Anderson as a second holding midfielder — a solution that would pull an England centre-back out of the back four and introduce fresh uncertainty into an already porous defence.

The squad Maresca is assembling has the flair and width to dazzle in attack. Whether it has the defensive solidity to win a title is a different question entirely, and one that the opening weeks of the season have done little to answer.