A look at some of the Manchester City talking points from Selhurst Park after Enzo Maresca’s team romped to a big win

Rayan Cherki was the star of the show as Manchester City beat Crystal Palace 4-1 at Selhurst Park on Friday night. The Frenchman bagged two goals in the second half to complement his two assists against Bournemouth and continue his fine start to the season.

Erling Haaland was also up and running with two very different goals scored before and after Cherki’s double, while Phil Foden picked up two assists in the game as well as Enzo Maresca’s side hit the top of the Premier League. There are still issues for the squad to work on and more players need to be brought in before the transfer window closes, but there were plenty of positives for the thousands of fans who had made the journey to South London.

There was also more going on in and around the game for Blues to notice. Moroccan midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi came on for his debut while two academy players came on in the final minutes of the match.

Here is a look at some of the moments at Selhurst Park that may have been missed.

Bouaddi gets fans excited

Ayyoub Bouaddi wasn’t seen on the pitch for long, arriving for the final ten minutes of the match with the game already won. However, the lanky teenager showed enough to excite supporters anxious to see what £81m has earned City this summer.

Bouaddi spent most of his time sat in front of the defence, shielding them from any Palace threats and mopping up everything that came his way. However, when he did get on the ball he played a beautiful pass through the lines for Antoine Semenyo to race onto in injury time.

The Ghana international was understandably tired and his cross for Haaland was cut out in the box, but it was a pass that would have had people purring if Rodri had played it. The Spaniard leaves large shoes to fill, but Bouaddi suggested he can have a big impact.

Ait-Nouri in and out

Rayan Ait-Nouri spoke of his excitement for the new season when he was on the summer tour but has not had much reason to cheer in the opening weeks. Benched as soon as Nico O’Reilly returned from his holiday and watching Josko Gvardiol play at left-back, Ait-Nouri was left on the bench at Selhurst Park while youngster Kaden Braithwaite was brought on instead to make his Premier League debut.

That had to sting, and raises late questions about his place in the squad, but after the game finished the Algerian headed out onto the pitch with the rest of the substitutes to do some shuttle runs. It may not have been the time on the grass that he wanted, yet Ait-Nouri was still putting in the effort.

McAidoo repeat

This was the first time Ryan McAidoo had been in a City squad since the first friendly of the summer tour. In 45 minutes against Inter in Hong Kong, he teased the defence again and again and went agonisingly close to scoring but saw a shot come back off the post.

A shoulder injury has prevented any involvement since but his early work was enough for him to earn his place in Maresca’s squad for the season and against Palace he showed why. Picking the ball up on the right wing in the final minutes of the game, he used his pace to beat one man before cutting inside and firing at goal on his favoured left foot.

Dean Henderson would have been helpless if it had arrowed into the far corner but instead it went just the other side of the post to leave McAidoo waiting for another senior goal. If he keeps creating the opportunities, the next one can’t be far away.

Popular streamer Ludwig shared his take on the Counter-Strike 2 community, claiming that many players have moved away from the game and started playing Deadlock instead. During his recent stream, Ludwig said he had received numerous messages asking him to play Valve’s hero shooter. He suggested that much of the CS2 community had “given up” on Counter-Strike and moved to Deadlock.

The relevant part of the stream was shared as a 48-second clip on X by user @veizau, where the popular Twitch streamer discusses the issue. He said:

“I have gotten so many messages to play Deadlock today and yesterday, this whole marathon. I’ve realized most of the CS2 community has given up on Counter-Strike and just started playing Deadlock, or bi*ching about Counter-Strike.”

Ludwig clarified that he still enjoys Counter-Strike but said the game and its community have increasingly become the subject of criticism from former players who have moved to Deadlock. He said:

“I think Counter-Strike’s really fun. But we’re getting roasted online, John. We’re getting roasted online by former CS2 players, now converted Deadlock players.”

Fans debate Ludwig’s comments about the CS2 community

Ludwig’s comments sparked a debate on X, with some users pushing back against his claim that a large portion of the CS2 community has moved to Deadlock, while others agreed with his assessment.

“that is such a retar*ed take. One of these games averages 40k right now and the other like a million.” X user @ImJLate wrote

“Yeah, one of the most dedicated fps communities ever left the genre entirely to go play a checks notes a MOBA? mmhmm yep” X user @reformed_fan commented

“You can tell how scared CS fans are beacuse of how defensive they are all in these comments lmao. Like how they all have the most one-sided beef in history with valorant, cus they know which one is actually better” X user @TheZucc170 added

“I play cs2 and dl every night but cs2 has nothing to do with deadlock, most deadlock players nowadays are washed up Overwatch players who need a new game to leech off of.” X user @zewmerz said

“I have tried to play Deadlock so many times I just do not get the appeal. It was so boring.” X user @KevinLeo4 remarked

In other news, Ludwig has responded after his Counter-Strike 2 chat logs were revealed, where he hoped a player would “die in real life”.