Manchester City may have lost more ground to Arsenal in the Premier League title race with a frustrating 1-1 draw at home against Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday, but there is reason to be excited for the action-packed weeks that lie ahead.

It took Pep Guardiola’s side a little over one week after the winter transfer window opened on New Year’s Day to finalise the £62.5million ($84.1m) signing of Antoine Semenyo, one of Europe’s most in-demand players after an impressive first half of the season with Bournemouth. With 10 goals and three assists, only new City team-mate Erling Haaland and the in-form Igor Thiago of Brentford have registered more Premier League goal contributions than the 26-year-old, an eye-catching winger with pace to burn and a thumping right (and left) foot.

At first glance, Semenyo doesn’t seem a typical City signing, a player who has thrived in Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola’s high-intensity, counter-attacking system, which has little regard for rehearsed attacking patterns and careful possession of the ball.

But as the Premier League evolves and Guardiola adapts to its latest form, it is Semenyo’s blend of athleticism and technical ability that appeals; an all-round winger who has the potential to add new elements to an increasingly varied attack.

The Athletic breaks down exactly how he will fit in at the Etihad Stadium.

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Unlike last January’s extensive recruitment drive, Semenyo’s imminent arrival at City is less about fixing any glaring issues with their squad. He is a luxury signing, a market opportunity snapped up to provide manager Guardiola with even more attacking solutions by adding another unique profile to an already-stacked front line.

In full flow, Rayan Cherki possesses a singular talent when it comes to breaking down deep defensive structures, able to rely on unrivalled technical ability and vision to pick the toughest of locks. Jeremy Doku is one of the world’s most relentless dribblers, Phil Foden is elusive and incisive in the tight spaces between the lines, while Haaland can blast his way through a compact defence with raw power and an unshakeable eye for goal. 

Semenyo brings another set of block-breaking qualities — explosive, two-footed, and willing to drive into the box and make things happen from the touchline. But he also adds a new dimension on the counter-attack to a City team who, in the first half of this season, have been happier to roll with the punches and cede control in more end-to-end games.

As we can see from the visualisation below, this version of City are not shying away from attacking at speed, generating close to 15 per cent of their expected goals (xG) through Opta-defined fast breaks — a significant increase on their numbers in years gone by. They have already scored more goals from such counter-attack situations in just over half of the 2025-26 campaign than they managed in the previous two complete seasons combined.

Semenyo is only going to help City charge forward more effectively, as he is one of the most incisive players on the breakaway in Europe. He blends pace and unpredictability, possessed of quick feet and a bulky build that makes him difficult to stop when moving at full tilt.

Here he is equalising away to Liverpool on the opening day of this season, after a turnover in possession on the edge of his own box. Within 10 seconds, Semenyo had carried the ball over 50 metres, eating up ground while keeping defenders guessing with a twisting run, before slamming a shot past Alisson with his supposedly weaker foot. 

WOW!

Antoine Semenyo with an incredible solo goal to equalise for Bournemouth at Anfield 😍⚡️ pic.twitter.com/y0UxlX6ovP

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) August 15, 2025

Semenyo is also capable of creating those opportunities to exploit the open space himself, stamping his authority on scrappy passages of play, as we can see below in October’s 3-3 draw at Crystal Palace. 

The ball breaks his way on the wing after a chaotic sequence in frame one of the sequence below, but with a positive first touch and burst of acceleration, he drives past Chris Richards and launches the attack, eventually crossing for Eli Junior Kroupi to score.

Again, keep an eye on the clock — just six seconds pass between Semenyo receiving the pass square and him firing over that assist.

It’s exactly the kind of flick-of-a-switch move that stung City so often last season, but one at which they are getting better — and must continue to improve — at executing themselves. 

Semenyo’s attacking skill set and athleticism should help City to level-up that threat, while also bringing the physicality and defensive application to keep them competitive in the kind of end-to-end Premier League game that used to pass them by.

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Despite a shift in his approach, Guardiola still prefers his City team to dominate possession and control the flow of games. And while Semenyo is at his thrilling best with space to attack, he has proven at Bournemouth that he can provide the spark of inspiration to charge through a set defence.

He can strike through the ball consistently well on both feet, making it difficult to read his intentions or block off every route to goal.

Of players to have taken more than 50 shots with either foot since the start of last season, nobody has a more even distribution of left-footed (53.0 per cent) and right-footed (47.0 per cent) efforts on goal across Europe’s top five domestic leagues, with the likes of Ousmane Dembele (Paris Saint-Germain) and Cherki (Lyon and now City) close behind.

As we can see from his shot map below, it means that no angle or distance is off-limits for Semenyo, who is a threat across the width of the box and beyond. A healthy over-performance relative to his expected goals figure backs up that confidence to let fly.

He is happier to drive with the ball and shoot than City’s other wingers, and though he averages fewer take-ons, touches and chances created in advanced areas than the likes of Doku and Savinho — partly owing to City’s possession-heavy approach — he’s taken around 3.1 shots per game since 2024-25, close to double the rate of Doku. 

Such ability to generate chances for himself, and blast a fair few of them home with his dependable shooting technique, adds another threat to City’s low-block breaking strategy.

Semenyo’s final goal for Bournemouth, sweeping a fierce low shot into the far corner for a stoppage-time winner against Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday, is exactly the kind of strike that can change tight contests and carry City over the line in games like this week’s win over Brighton — open and end-to-end — where poor finishing saw the result slip away.

In what Andoni Iraola said could be his last @afcbournemouth match, Antoine Semenyo won it 3-2 in the 95th minute! 😯 pic.twitter.com/xQfycQMzXM

— Premier League (@premierleague) January 8, 2026

Below is another example, where he gives Bournemouth the lead at Chelsea last season.

As he approaches the box, his path to cut inside is blocked by Josh Acheampong, but Semenyo is lightning-quick to shift the ball onto his left foot and shoot, giving Acheampong little time to stick out a leg to block.

As well as his accuracy, the power Semenyo can generate in tight spaces will be an invaluable tool in packed penalty areas, able to shift in either direction and shoot with either foot before goalkeepers have time to get set. 

WHAT A STRIKE 🤩

Antoine Semenyo brilliantly gives Bournemouth the lead over Chelsea 🙌

📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/dMgSPyGisI

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 14, 2025

More time in advanced areas for a territorially-dominant City side will give Semenyo more opportunities from knock-downs and snapshots, where his two-footedness and consistently clean connection with the ball should help him to rack up the goals.

Physically, too, Semenyo is an intimidating presence, while his acceleration and striking instincts — sharpened throughout his three full seasons playing up front in the second-tier Championship for Bristol City — mean he will be dangerous whenever the ball breaks. There is untapped potential for him to dominate the box in a way he hasn’t before.

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Lastly, Semenyo has experience playing across the front line, adding versatility and squad depth that Guardiola will appreciate as he plots another title charge over the season’s final five months. Per Opta, he played just over 60 per cent of his minutes in the Championship for Bristol City as a centre-forward, forming a partnership with target man Chris Martin that allowed Semenyo to make runs off his striker and float into the channels. 

As we can see from his touch map below, it was only after moving to the Premier League in January 2023 that Semenyo was assigned to the flanks, originally making his mark for Bournemouth on the right before gradually moving over to the other side in the seasons that followed.

Though this has been Semenyo’s most prolific campaign, the numbers across his top-flight career suggest he is just as lively on either flank, averaging a similar number of shots from the left (2.9) and the right (3.0), while his rates of chance creation (1.3 vs 1.1) and attempted take-ons (4.2 vs 4.5) also remain relatively stable.

There will, of course, need to be adaptation from the London-born Ghana international, a player who will not be the sole attacking spearhead for City as he was before. At Bournemouth, he was given licence to lose the ball and take risks, under a head coach in Iraola for whom hard-hitting counter-attacks are a central part of the game plan. 

Semenyo is not immune from a frustrating performance where he picks the wrong moments to shoot and overhits his crosses. He may need time to learn the rhythms of City’s game, and to pick his moments a little more carefully to attack.

That said, there has never been a better time to join Guardiola for a live-wire winger such as Semenyo, and for City, given their shift towards a more adventurous attacking style that requires moments of individual brilliance, the logic of this signing is clear to see.