“The have impressed me so far in the pres season and will have a playing spot in my Starting Eleven- Manchester City Manager Pep Guardiola confirms two new Man City first team players.

After running the rule on his academy youngsters in the USA, Pep Guardiola will return to Manchester with two new first team players.

Following a summer of international events, Guardiola took a young Manchester City team to the States with most of his senior players still on holiday. Guardiola argues one benefit is the opportunity to run the rule over City’s top young players to see how they behave in a first team setting, even although he has often voiced annoyance that he cannot implement fresh ideas on tour.

Previously stating he wanted five or six young players to augment his team, the manager has suddenly changed his mind to just two – Nico O’Reilly and James McAtee.

Building on his goal against Barcelona, O’Reilly once more received accolades for another outstanding effort against Chelsea on his fourth start of the summer. McAtee also grabbed two assists in the second half to add to his target against AC Milan.

“Every game was far better than the one before it,” said Guardiola. “Kalvin [Philipps] grew up; Erling [Haaland] grew up. Jack [Grealish] barely makes a couple games. Rico [Lewis] has been simply amazing with Oscar [Bobb]. McAtee today realizes his football playing ability. Nico too performed at a good level.

“All the young players spend some minutes. Today at sixteen years old, Stephen [Mfuni] makes his debut. Everybody played. Now some players will be with the first team, others with the second, some for loan. Hopefully they will return next season.

“Both of them [McAtee and O’Reilly will be first team choices]. The others still lack readiness for playing with us. They have to be either second team or loan. We shall observe their growth as it constantly relies on them.”