No shouting, no chaos: has Maresca broken the curse of succeeding the legends?

Perhaps the most telling feature of Maresca's character is how he handles pressure. The coach cast his mind back to last September, when he was in charge of Chelsea and his goalkeeper Robert Sanchez was sent off after just five minutes against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

That evening went very differently. Maresca had to react early, making two substitutions inside the first seven minutes and effectively shifting his side to a back five. Still, he could not hold on to the result until the final whistle.

Nearly a year on, Maresca looked far more assured facing the same scenario. He resisted the urge to make radical changes after the red card, giving his team time to grasp what was happening and adjust. Moving Rayan Cherki to the right, before replacing him with Iliman Ndiaye at half-time, ranked among his sharpest tactical calls of the match.

Such calmness runs beyond the pitch. It has become part of the coach's character off it, too. In press conferences, Maresca appears smiling and relaxed, fielding questions in a manner completely different from the image Manchester City's fans grew used to during the Guardiola years.

Asked about Erling Haaland and his brilliance this season after the win over Manchester United, Maresca responded with a smile, borrowing from the famous saying: "A happy wife means a happy life. For us, a happy Erling means a happy life."

Simple and cheerful, the line says plenty about the new coach. Maresca is not trying to build another version of Guardiola. He seems determined to be himself, according to "BBC Sport".

The comparison with Guardiola was inevitable from the moment Manchester City announced Maresca's appointment. He did not merely inherit a successful team. He inherited a system accustomed to winning, a fan base used to watching football with a clear identity, and players who had spent years under a manager who left a deep mark on the smallest details of their daily lives.

Watch the technical area and the difference between the two men becomes obvious. Guardiola moved about constantly during matches, shouting, directing his players, reacting to almost every detail. Maresca stands calmer. He often barely moves, arms folded across his chest, watching the match before he intervenes.

That calm does not mean an absence of ideas or influence. Quite the opposite. Maresca wants to impose his personality in a different way.

Training sessions have changed too. Music now runs through the working atmosphere, loud house music that Maresca himself described as the "boom, boom, boom" kind.

His idea is simple: make the players happier and let that show in their performance on the pitch. Maresca is not trying to erase Guardiola's legacy. He wants to add something of his own to it.

Maresca's influence goes beyond the general mood. It reaches into the technical and training details too. New Manchester City captain Rúben Dias explained that the coach has brought his own ideas, even if the foundations laid over the past years remain in place.

According to Dias, the changes are clear. They start on the training ground and stretch to the pressing style and the way the team defends, all of it stamped with Maresca's ideas.

The Portuguese defender was quick to stress the continuity in City's style of play. That may well be one of the keys to Maresca's early success.

He did not arrive at Manchester City to start from scratch, nor did he set about dismantling a system that had already proven successful. Instead, he kept the foundation and layered in gradual adjustments that give the team his own stamp.

Plenty has changed, Dias said, yet the team's identity and style remain close to what the club had grown used to. Herein lies the paradox. Maresca is changing City, but he is not trying to change it completely.

Maresca's appointment immediately drew comparisons with David Moyes, who succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in 2013. It remains one of football's most famous cautionary tales about coaches trying to follow club legends.

Ferguson had spent 27 years at the helm of Manchester United. Moyes walked into Old Trafford unable to carry the weight of expectation, and lasted no more than ten months before his dismissal. Maresca knows better than most, then, that succeeding a coach like Guardiola carries exceptional risks.

At his unveiling, the coach pointed to other examples, citing Ferguson and Arsène Wenger, and explaining that clubs suffered to varying degrees after the departure of long-serving managers.

He refused to treat those comparisons as a threat. Talk of Guardiola would continue, he admitted, but he stressed that it "does not put any pressure on him". That mindset perhaps explains much about the way he has worked so far.

Maresca's start wasn't perfect, and that's easy to forget. Manchester City shipped a heavy 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield, a result that could have opened an early door to questions over the new manager's ability to handle a club of this size.

The response came quickly. City reeled off five straight wins, including a triumph over Porto in the Champions League, then carried that form into the Premier League.

Old Trafford followed. Beating Manchester United there gave Maresca's start an extra lift, not only because of the opponent but because of how the team handled the circumstances of the match.

This is precisely what makes the start interesting. Maresca isn't simply winning. The team looks like it's learning how to handle crises without losing its balance.

Even so, the big questions remain on hold. Manchester City have taken only their first steps under their new manager, the season is long, and the competition will get tougher by the week.

Substantial summer changes to the squad mean Maresca is not just succeeding Guardiola. He is trying to build a new version of the team at the same time.

The defence of the League Cup title begins with a clash against Norwich City at the Etihad Stadium, before Sunderland visit in the Premier League three days later.

Two more wins would leave Maresca close to a near-perfect start to his tenure. Yet the numbers matter less than how he keeps handling the pressure.

So far, he appears to have grasped the fundamental rule of the task: he cannot be Guardiola, and he does not need to be.

He has inherited a team that knows how to win, but he has chosen to give it something different. Calm in a crisis, a lighter personality off the pitch, and fresh ideas in training and matches.

The "mission impossible" that looked so daunting before the season has gradually turned into a viable project. Maresca has not yet stepped out of Guardiola's cloak, but he has already begun to weave his own.