Ilkay Gundogan was the first signing of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City tenure. He is one of the players who understands his vision of football on a granular level, so much so that there have been talks over him joining the staff as a coach when he retires.

These are early days in the process of finding a replacement for Kevin De Bruyne but Tijjani Reijnders staked his claim after his under-the-radar arrival this summer.

Indeed, as per transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, City hold Real Madrid attacker Rodrygo in high esteem, with Pep Guardiola and Co singling out the £86m-rated Brazilian as a main target, if Savinho does decide to leave City behind for Tottenham Hotspur.

The Dutch midfielder moved to Manchester City this summer from AC Milan and looked quite impressive in his debut

And that return has only been managed once before by a Manchester City player, earning Reijnders a notable record on his first start in the league. The only other player to score and assist on their Premier League debut for City was Sergio Aguero in 2011 when he scored twice against Swansea.

Manchester City began the 2025–26 campaign with a routine 4–0 victory away to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday afternoon.

Erling Haaland scores twice and Tijjani Reijnders shines on his Premier League debut as Manchester City begin the season by thrashing Wolves at Molineux.

Match report as Manchester City beat Serie B side Palermo 3-0 in their one and only pre-season game this summer; Erling Haaland scored the opener after being set up by the impressive Rayan Cherki; Tij

GOAL runs through the hottest takes from gameweek one of the 2025-26 Premier League season, including thoughts on Tijjani Reijnders, Viktor Gyokeres, Ruben Amorim and more.