Ilkay Gundogan was the first signing of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City tenure. He is one of the players who understands his vision of football on a granular level, so much so that there have been talks over him joining the staff as a coach when he retires.

Indeed, as per transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, City hold Real Madrid attacker Rodrygo in high esteem, with Pep Guardiola and Co singling out the £86m-rated Brazilian as a main target, if Savinho does decide to leave City behind for Tottenham Hotspur.

And that return has only been managed once before by a Manchester City player, earning Reijnders a notable record on his first start in the league. The only other player to score and assist on their Premier League debut for City was Sergio Aguero in 2011 when he scored twice against Swansea.

Manchester City began the 2025–26 campaign with a routine 4–0 victory away to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday afternoon.

The Dutch midfielder moved to Manchester City this summer from AC Milan and looked quite impressive in his debut

Report and free match highlights from Man Citys win over Wolves in the Premier League match at Molineux; Tijjani Reijnders scores and assists on debut, Erling Haaland strikes twice and Rayan Cherki al

Reijnders brought dynamism back to the Manchester City midfield, and it was his ability to drive through the pitch from deep, whilst retaining a remarkable control of the ball in tight spaces despite his imposing physical figure, that played a significant role in Pep Guardiola's side scoring the goals that they did.