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In a season where the football on offer would struggle to entertain paint testers, Rayan Cherki has offered a point of difference. A playground footballer who gives off the impression of actually enjoying the game, while the majority of professionals are enduring the methodical nature of desperately practising set pieces. Cherki possesses an armoury of trickery and a desire to use it at every opportunity, even in a stuttering win at Burnley.

A fee of £30.5m was paid for the France international last summer, luring him from Lyon. While Florian Wirtz, a player who cost almost four times as much, struggles to adapt at Liverpool, Cherki’s relaxed attitude has made it a seamless transition from Ligue 1 to Premier League. There is a fearlessness to his play, knowing that if he does lose the ball then it will soon be back at his feet.

Phil Foden is cemented in the role of second choice No 10 thanks to Cherki’s form. He is making the position his own and Pep Guardiola knows his preferred front four contains the Frenchman with Erling Haaland in front of him and Antoine Semenyo and Jérémy Doku either side. This is the regular quartet for the new Premier League leaders because their head coach knows the importance of strengthening the bond between his most effective attackers and that it can only make them more potent.

Burnley have been bamboozled by far less qualified magicians this season, hence the confirmation of their relegation in a 13th straight home game without a victory. The hosts sat very deep, with Cherki often in charge of engineering the gaps on a nervy night for City. He roamed in between the backline and midfield, drifting to the right where he most likes to collect possession before driving towards the box.

Without the safety net of Rodri, the almost irreplaceable Bernardo Silva and Nico O’Reilly were the duo giving Cherki licence. As a No 10, having confidence in those behind you is imperative, allowing greater freedom to take risks because they are the barrier when an opponent counters. Guardiola has pushed Cherki to provide more defensively, rather than being a completely selfish attacker and he is embracing the added responsibility to get into shape as soon as possible when City are out of possession.

Cherki’s superb individual goal against Arsenal at the weekend showed his confidence levels and he would have added another to his tally had it not been for a stunning Martin Dubravka save early on. The Frenchman was inside the box, finding the space vacated by Haaland, who attracts too much attention for his own good, opening up chances for others. In a congested area, Cherki is smart enough to know where to be because others are not.

Breaking the lines against a side with a low block is difficult, even if they are second bottom of the league. Cherki always felt the most likely to cause problems, having started the game with a beautiful touch and backheel; he played a nonchalant one-two with Haaland on the edge of the box to create a chance and opened up the right channel with cunning pass down the line for Antoine Semenyo to prove the Frenchman is a footballer for the AI generation.

Sometimes for those with such natural gifts, there is a selfishness to their play but Cherki is embracing being a team player after regularly trying to do too much alone in the early stages of his City career. He dribbled 30 yards into the box, drawing defenders towards him to free up Semenyo, creating a superb chance to double the lead, only for the former Bournemouth man to stall his run and lift a shot over the bar from close range as he struggled to get the ball out of his feet. Dribbling is a forgotten art form that few want to embrace, more comfortable with the idea of checking inside and doing the easy thing, a rare thought in Cherki’s mind.

Neither Doku nor Semenyo were at their best on the wings, so Cherki was required to be the key instigator. It brought out his showman in the second half, when he pondered how to best outsmart the Clarets, chipping the ball up for himself to lob a cross into the box, getting him out of a tight space.

Cherki will be upset that his own shooting was not up to scratch, firing a couple of weak shots from the edge of the box. City need to be more clinical when the title could go down to goal difference and even a maverick can find time to practise his shooting from distance.

Even in the tense final stages, as City failed to conjure up a second, there were step-overs galore from Cherki, his personal attempt to show there was no panic among those in grey and fluorescent, even if the evidence told a different story. Like the kit, City’s execution was not vintage but Cherki provided splashes of colour and plenty of whimsy.