Man City NAILED their January business: Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi proving perfect additions to turbocharge Premier League title push

The difference in results for City before and after Semenyo signed on January 9, and again after Guehi made his debut three weeks later, is stark. Guardiola's side drew their opening three Premier League matches of 2026 against Sunderland, Chelsea and Brighton, leaving them six points behind Arsenal in the title race.

They have won nine of their 11 games in all competitions since Semenyo joined, only losing at Manchester United and drawing at Tottenham. That six-point gap has been reduced to potentially two if City win their game-in-hand against Crystal Palace, and Semenyo has been utterly crucial to that winning streak, contributing six goals and two assists.

He has scored three go-ahead goals, against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup and against Fulham and Leeds in the Premier League, with the latter strike giving City all three points on Saturday. Semenyo is City's top scorer since he signed, with double the amount of goals as Erling Haaland.

The Ghana international has been highly effective both as a foil for Haaland, easing the burden on the Norwegian and giving City another regular supply of chances and goals when Haaland has a quiet day, or, as in the recent win against Newcastle, when playing a more creative role. Semenyo can also an effective replacement for Haaland, as he proved at Elland Road, when he evaded two markers to get on the end of Rayan Ait-Nouri's cross to score. 

Since Semenyo made his league debut for City, only Cole Palmer, Joao Pedro and Viktor Gyokeres have scored more often in the English top-flight. Over the course of the season, he is the third-highest scorer in the Premier League behind just Haaland and Igor Thiago, having netted 10 times in his 20 games for Bournemouth before making the £64m ($85m) switch. 

Guardiola didn't hide his admiration for Semenyo when he was a Bournemouth player, describing him as "always hungry, always brave." And he has not been surprised by how quickly he has adapted to life at the Etihad, either.

"You never know," he said at Elland Road. "You buy players with good intentions, but the impact has been good."

Semenyo's versatility appealed to Guardiola when weighing up whether or not to sign him, as did his pace, and what the coach calls "rhythm".

"It’s not just scoring a lot of goals," the Catalan said last month. "He makes a special rhythm, his versatility to play many positions up front. He comes from Bournemouth, they are exceptional in the rhythm and defensively and he has it in his DNA."

If Semenyo has fixed one major problem for City by giving them an extra dimension in attack, Guehi has sorted out the issue that had threatened to derail their entire season.

The twin loss of Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias against Chelsea in early January left City bereft of experienced defenders, with John Stones having been injured in December amid his struggle with various fitness problems since the treble-winning season of 2022-23.

That injury crisis led to City hastily recalling 20-year-old Max Alleyne from his loan at Watford and throwing him in at the deep end against Brighton. He was paired with Abdukodir Khusanov, aged 21 at the time and with limited Premier League experience having been in and out of the team since arriving in January 2025. The results were predictably terrible, as City drew with Brighton, lost 2-0 to United and were destroyed by Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League.  

Guehi, who was signed from Crystal Palace for just £20m the day before the shock defeat at the hands of the Norwegian upstarts, arrived at the perfect time. He produced a flawless debut against Wolves and was brilliant against Liverpool in City's first at an Anfield in front of fans for 23 years. Guehi's experience and anticipation was a gift for the highly-aggressive and talented but still raw Khusanov in those first few games, and now he has a partner on the same level as him in Dias, with the pair combining highly effectively to protect City's lead at Elland Road.

"The two centre-backs, Ruben Dias and Marc Guehi, were excellent," said former Wales captain Ashley Williams on Match of the Day. "Leeds threw everything at it and these two stood up to it. This could be the start of one of the great centre-back pairings in the Premier League if they can get them on the pitch the rest of this season and next season."

The success of Guehi and Semenyo stands in great contrast to the mixed results of City's hectic transfer activities the previous January. Although Khusanov has slowly proven himself, he endured a very rough start to life in England following his nightmare debut against Chelsea and made just six league appearances between January and May. 

Fellow centre-back Vitor Reis had an even rougher introduction to English football with his debut at Leyton Orient and played just one minute of league football before being sent on loan to City's sister club Girona. Nico Gonzalez, meanwhile, was inconsistent and found himself out of the team at the crucial stage of the season, while the return of Rodri from injury has limited his playing time this campaign.

Omar Marmoush was the big success, notching eight goals, but he has also been kept out of the team this season by Haaland, with his month away with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations not helping his cause. He has played more often since returning, but he has failed to take his chances, and Semenyo's brilliant start to life at City has put Marmoush's numbers from last season into perspective.

It is no great surprise that Semenyo and Guehi have hit the ground running compared to last year's arrivals as they did not have to adapt to a new culture or league. And while last year City were in the midst of their worst campaign under Guardiola when the likes of Khusanov, Marmoush and Gonzalez joined, Guehi and Semenyo have arrived into an improving and refreshed squad that had had five months to gel. 

Still, as City's results at the start of January could attest to, they were not yet the finished article. The new recruits have not only added depth to the squad, they have finessed it.

"What they have brought in in the two boys is hunger," said former Chelsea star Joe Cole on TNT Sports last month. "These boys have been fighting their whole lives to come to this stage and become champions. They're brining a hunger to it, they're bringing something to the party. They're probably walking into a dressing room thinking 'this is it, I'm at Man City, I'm gonna win titles'. 

"They're walking into a chill place and it's allowing them to just play their games and bring something to the party. This could be one of the best January transfer windows a club fighting at the top of the Premier League has ever had."

There is still a long way to go in the title race and Arsenal's defiant wins over Tottenham and Chelsea showed that they are not going to yield their place at the summit without a fight. City, though, have two shiny new weapons who could just prove the difference when all is said and done.