Rayan Cherki gets the Enzo Maresca era up and running as Man City thump Crystal Palace - but here's why Pep Guardiola's successor still has much work to do, writes JAMES SHARPE

Who needs control when you have Rayan Cherki? Why does it matter who Enzo Maresca plays in midfield, or how he’ll replace Rodri, when he’s got the magical feet of this majestic Frenchman to win him games of football?

When Manchester City trailed with four minutes to go at Bournemouth in Maresca’s first Premier League match in charge, he set up the equaliser and then the winner. At Selhurst Park, as this new chaotic City look like it might wobble again, he scored twice to put all worries to bed.

His first was simply sublime. Collecting Phil Foden’s pass, he jinked his way through a tight crowd of four Palace defenders to poke the ball beyond Dean Henderson. Then, just three minutes after a Gianluigi Donnarumma own goal had made life nervy again, he blasted a second past him from 25 yards. Game over.

When Erling Haaland added a second of his own five minutes from time, it certainly was. There is still much to do but the Maresca era is up and running.

The task of inheriting a great club from a great manager is never a straightforward task, especially when the very kingdom itself is in need of a structural rebuild.

Just ask David Moyes or Unai Emery. Even a Premier League title didn’t keep Arne Slot around for long.

So, the early days of Maresca’s reign in the post-Pep Guardiola era always threatened to be jittery, even more so when the rock on which it was built in Rodri was no longer there.

City were blown away by Arsenal in the Community Shield, albeit in a glorified friendly. They trailed at home to Bournemouth for most of the game. Maresca doesn’t know his best team yet. In an early flash of his maverick predecessor, willing to fling unexpected players into unexpected positions, Maresca started centre-back Marc Guehi in midfield against Bournemouth, but returned him to defence at Selhurst Park against his former club.

For all that relentless, endless control that defined the Pep glory days, the Maresca one often just screams chaos. Palace, in the opening minutes of their first Premier League home game under Pierre Sage, had this unbalanced, uncertain City side backpedaling. Eddie Nketiah bombed past Ruben Dias down the Palace left and forced a fine low save from Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Daichi Kamada cut inside down the same side and fired in a shot that Abdukodir Khusanov had to head over his own crossbar. As Anan Khalaili geed up the crowd after another Palace opening, it felt like City might falter again.

The hope is that City’s new £86m signing Ayyoub Bouaddi, the maths student, chess player and national debating champion, will help restore that sense of control. He came on for his debut late on when the game was won. City still want Enzo Fernandez from Chelsea, too, to add further physicality to a midfield that Maresca is currently trying to mix and match.

Without it, this is a City side currently relying on moments of quality instead of periods of dominance. And why not, when you have a front four that can provide it in a flash. That’s just what they did to take the lead after 17 minutes.

Antoine Semenyo was given far too long to pick his spot, curling his cross towards Haaland who outjumped Palace defender Chris Richards and sent a towering, looping header over a sprawling Dean Henderson to open his account for the season.

At least that put to bed any concerns that shaving off his flowing blond locks might have left him, like Samson, bereft of his powers. Still, when you’ve scored in every Premier League game you have played against Palace, who are we to doubt him.

Haaland, like his compatriot Jorgen Strand Larsen for Palace, sported a black armband in memory of Norway’s King Harald, who died on Friday aged 89.

Phil Foden should have doubled City’s lead a few minutes later but, somehow, blazed over the bar from inside the box with no Palace player in sight. Foden couldn’t believe it, and neither could Maresca, who turned away and clasped both cheeks with his palms.

At times, City turned on the style. Nico O’Reilly, the newest partner for Elliot Anderson in midfield, nutmegged Kamada following a remarkable turn in the middle of the pitch before firing wide.

At many others, though, they showed why they will need to find some semblance of control if they are to flourish under Maresca.

Palace had so many openings but lacked the final touch. Tyrick Mitchell headed wide from a superb Adam Wharton cross. Chris Richards sent another free header from a free-kick weakly into the hands of Donnarumma. At the start of the second half, Mitchell fizzed a ball across goal but Nketiah couldn’t get a strong enough contact.

The hosts briefly made City wobble in between Cherki’s two stunners when World Cup winner Yeremy Pino’s beauty of a free-kick beat Donnarumma, struck the crossbar and rebounded in off the goalkeeper’s back.

City, though, won’t find all their opponents so generous in their wastefulness as Palace and certainly not when they have to take on Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain at the Etihad or make the trip to the Nou Camp.

Still, when you’ve got someone as magical as Cherki to decide matches, you can’t help but wonder whether any of that really matters.