Saturday also saw City’s two eye-catching January signings starting together for the first time, with Marc Guehi helping the side to a clean sheet on his debut.
The 25-year-old displayed a calmness and assuredness at the heart of the defence, completing a match-high 95 passes from 102 attempted, while also winning possession back four times and contributing two interceptions.
Guehi fills a gaping hole left in City’s defence following injuries to Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol but he looks to have hit the ground running, as has Antoine Semenyo, who has now scored three goals for the club since joining from Bournemouth.
“Antoine made an incredible [impact] at Bournemouth and it’s not necessary to tell [you] about Marc and who he is,” said Guardiola. “The captain from Crystal Palace, national team for your country and he knows everything, you had a feeling from day one.
“They have not come for six months, they’ve come for many years so the transfer is a really good prize and they are the perfect age – 25, 26 – so an incredible signing for Manchester City for many years. He is a guy you can rely on.
“You see it – two training sessions, how he moves, how he talks, how he sees what happens to surround him, reading the situations. Really good.”
For now, City have narrowed the deficit to leaders Arsenal to four points and they will be relying on a favour from rivals Manchester United when they play at Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Former England captain Alan Shearer told BBC Sport: “It’s too early to say Manchester City are back. They were playing at home against the team bottom of the table.
“We know how reliant they’ve been on Erling Haaland this season so it was interesting to see Pep try something different today with Marmoush and Semenyo and there were some promising signs but much bigger tests lie ahead.”