Top News

Early trouble for Manchester City? Enzo Maresca has given an update on Elliot Anderson after a dramatic Premier League comeback victory over Bournemouth.

Manchester City came through a major scare against Bournemouth as Enzo Maresca claimed his first Premier League win as Pep Guardiola's successor in dramatic style. Anderson's early withdrawal threatened to deepen City's concerns, but Maresca has attempted to calm fears over the midfielder's fitness following his £116m move from Nottingham Forest.

Anderson injury concern

City looked set for another difficult afternoon after Marcus Tavernier put Bournemouth ahead at the Etihad. The visitors took advantage as Maresca's side struggled to adjust to the new manager's tactics, but Marc Guehi eventually brought City level before Josko Gvardiol scored in injury time to seal a dramatic 2-1 win.

The fightback was accompanied by concern over Anderson, who went down following a collision with Alex Scott in the second half. The midfielder seemed to be feeling his hamstring before he was replaced by Mateo Kovacic shortly after the hour mark. Anderson had started every England match bar one at the World Cup and had only recently joined City from Nottingham Forest in a record-breaking £116 million transfer.

Maresca gives reassuring update

Maresca was quick to play down the injury fears after the match. The City manager said about Anderson's condition: "I think it was cramp. We still have four or five players that are not 100 per cent and he is one of them."

He later added: "Today we had four or five players that arrived very late, 10 days ago, so for them it's almost still pre-season. Erling [Haaland] is one, Elliot, Marc Guehi, Nico O'Reilly, so it's complicated. But they've done a huge effort to help."

Anderson already impressing Maresca

In spite of the fitness issue, Maresca was happy with Anderson's performance before he had to go off. "He was very good. Elliot was very good on the ball, very good off the ball," he added. "I have a good feeling with Elliot that he's going to be better and better. Again, for him this was like pre-season. He arrived 10 days ago but the feeling with him is that he's going to be very good for this club in the future."

City face another quick test

City do not have much time to recover, with an away trip to Crystal Palace fixed for Friday night. Anderson's condition will be closely watched as Maresca handles a squad that still contains several players who are short of full match fitness.

The midfield is also going through major changes following the departures of Rodri, Bernardo Silva and Tijjani Reijnders. City have reportedly agreed an £85.6m deal for Lille teenager Ayyoub Bouaddi, adding another dimension to Maresca's rebuilding job.