Maresca faces City ownership pressure after just two Premier League games

Manchester City’s ownership has already set the bar for Enzo Maresca: win everything, or face scrutiny — and that message arrived after just two Premier League matches.

City opened the 2025-26 season with a 3-0 Community Shield defeat to Arsenal before recovering to take six points from their opening two league fixtures against Bournemouth and Crystal Palace. Despite sitting joint-top of the Premier League on goal difference, the club’s internal tone is less congratulatory than expectant.

City journalist Simon Bajkowski has reported that the club’s confidence in their summer recruitment runs deep. “There is confidence at Man City that the recruitment is good enough to expect Enzo Maresca to fight across all four competitions,” Bajkowski said. “With depth cited in every position despite wholesale changes, there is even an internal belief that Man City are in better shape for this season than last year.”

That belief is grounded in a significant transfer outlay. City broke the British transfer record to sign midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Chelsea, while also bringing in World Cup standout Ayyoub Bouaddi for close to €100 million. Former Nottingham Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson arrived for £116 million and has started all three of the club’s opening fixtures.

The backdrop to those expectations is a season in which City finished second in the Premier League, seven points behind Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, who claimed the title at the fourth attempt. Guardiola’s side had edged Arsenal in each of the two preceding campaigns — 89 points to 84 in 2022-23, and 91 to 89 in 2023-24 — before Liverpool ultimately pipped Arsenal in 2024-25 with 84 points to the Gunners’ 74.

Guardiola’s final season did end with silverware: City won the Carabao Cup against Arsenal and the FA Cup against Chelsea to secure a domestic double before his departure in May.

Maresca, who takes over a squad rebuilt around those expensive additions, now carries the weight of an institution that has grown accustomed to title challenges across multiple fronts. Whether the new manager can translate that investment into trophies in his first season remains the central question of City’s campaign.