Matheus Nunes sends clear message to Pep Guardiola as Man City beat Southampton

Pep Guardiola once hailed as one of the best players in the world.

It’s taken a while, but perhaps the Portuguese international is starting to slowly believe that it wasn’t just on a wind-up. had, after all, just given Nunes’ team a 5-0 walloping on their own turf when the Catalan suggested the midfielder born in Rio de Janeiro was at the top of the game.

There’s nothing quite like giving someone a pat on the head when you’ve just taught them a lesson. Yet just over a year later, after Nunes had spent an impressive season with , he when they paid the midlanders £53million on deadline day last August.

But Nunes then spent the next 12 months paralysed by the kind of yips that turned Kalvin Phillips into a nervous wreck when he was also asked to prove he deserved to be part of the finest team in the Premier League.

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That the 26-year-old turned down the chance to earn a fortune in the this summer because he felt compelled to finish some business at the Etihad first, was the kind of message that Guardiola wanted to hear.

This was only Nunes’ fourth start of the season - and his first in the . The only times he had previously been in the team were for games against Watford in the Carabao Cup and Slovan Bratislava and Sparta Prague in the Champions League.

If the next few months will make him or break him in Manchester, he got off to an encouraging start. Asked to play wide on the left in the absence of and Jeremy Doku, he needed just four minutes to serve up a cross that was gobbled up by .

It was the Norwegian’s 14th goal of the season. Eleven of them have come in the Premier League and a third successive Golden Boot already appears to be a formality if he can stay healthy. Haaland would have been disappointed not to have gone home with another match-ball.

Guardiola is big on body language. When he was looking for penalty takers when City’s Community Shield meeting with Manchester United in August had to be decidedly a shoot-out, up stepped Nunes to look Andre Onana in the eye before burying his kick into the top corner.

The City boss was picked up by TV cameras whistling in delight. Last Sunday at Wolves, Nunes got his own back on the Molineux fans who jeered his every touch after he came on as a substitute by celebrating Josko Gvardiol’s injury-time winner like it was settling a Champions League final.

So, after scoring against Prague in midweek, he was in the team again. He could have scored another if his radar had not been off by about a yard not long after providing Haaland with the early opener.

When Nunes was subbed off three minutes from time, City were starting to look increasingly nervous as they looked to close out the unconvincing victory that took them top of the table. has insisted will play his way regardless of the consequences.

Martin is clearly a disciple of the Guardiola school of possession. But it’s hard to emulate the best regardless of how willing your players are to give it a crack. Eight defeats and one point from nine games doesn't give the Saints boss much wriggle room.

They can take some belief from the way they defended and kept possession when City imposed a press that has squeezed the life out of much better teams. The visitors' approach caused City some anxiety in the closing stages without really giving keeper Ederson too much work to do.

But if Cameron Archer had flashed his shot inches lower rather than against the top of the crossbar in first-half injury-time that really would have given Guardiola something to think about.

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