Man City put eight past Salford to progress to fourth round
Jack Grealish scored his first goal in more than a year and James McAtee hit a second-half hat-trick as Manchester City surged to their biggest win since January 2019 to knock League Two Salford out of the FA Cup.
Grealish converted the 49th-minute spot-kick after he had been fouled, then exchanged a joke with routine penalty-taker Erling Haaland, who was on the bench after manager Pep Guardiola had chosen to leave out a number of big names for the third-round tie.
The England man's last goal came against Crystal Palace on 16 December 2023, and he has struggled for form since.
Grealish handed over responsibilities to Jeremy Doku when City were awarded another penalty 20 minutes later. The Belgian was also successful, having started what was to turn into a one-sided first meeting between City and a Salford side owned by the famous 'Class of 92'.
Young striker Divin Mubama scored on his debut when the former West Ham FA Youth Cup winner tapped home Matheus Nunes' astute low cross, and Nico O'Reilly also scored his first City goal when he sent a low shot into the far corner from Doku's cut-back.
But McAtee, surprisingly overlooked for long spells of the season by Guardiola despite City's poor form, soon took centre stage.
The England Under-21 man profited from Doku's approach work for his first after 62 minutes, and within 19 minutes had claimed the match ball as he was set up by Phil Foden and Grealish.
"I'm so happy for him, he's a special player," Guardiola told Match of the Day. "He's been at City for a long time, a City supporter and he was one of the biggest talents at the academy from the generation of Jadon Sancho, Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers and Liam Delap. He played with these guys and was the captain of them.
"I'm really, really pleased he's here with us."
McAtee added: "I've been here since I was 10 and it's a special moment for me. Something I'll remember forever."
McAtee scores hat-trick for Man City
Grealish makes his mark as Walker left out
Watch as Grealish scores first club goal in over a year
Although Guardiola left a host of stars on the bench, Kyle Walker was not among them.
The City boss explained before the match it had been a tactical decision. However, after the match he said the 34-year-old wishes to "explore" a move abroad.
It meant Nunes and O'Reilly were chosen to fill the full-back berths in a team that included just two orthodox defenders, in a squad Guardiola is intent on reshaping as he awaits confirmation the £33.6m transfer of Uzbekistan defender Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens has been completed.
Like Walker, Grealish's form this season has been poor.
Guardiola recently said he wanted to see the England man return to the standards he set in the 2022-23 Treble-winning campaign.
A single penalty against a League Two side will not do that. And even in this game, Grealish spent a lot of time checking inside or playing short passes rather than driving at opponents in the manner he did at Aston Villa before his £100m move north.
However, as with City themselves, you can only beat what is in front of you. And, while it was a penalty, Grealish will be relieved to have changed the narrative around his lack of goals.
Salford outclassed
From their various vantage points - Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes were in the directors box, Ryan Giggs was in the technical area in his role as Salford's football director and coaching assistant and, presumably, Gary and Phil Neville and David Beckham were following on TV as they were not at the game in person - the League Two club's famous owners knew what their team needed to do to stop their hosts.
But knowing what to do and actually being able to do it are two very different things.
The brutal reality is the 'Class of 92' in their prime were at a level way beyond anything Salford's squad are capable of.
Had Kylian Kouassi been able to turn Hakeeb Adelakun's excellent left-wing cross goalwards from a central position on the edge of the six-yard box, Salford would have halved Manchester City's lead and felt as though they still had hopes of a huge shock.
Instead, Kouassi stubbed the ball away from the net and within seconds O'Reilly was spearing his debut goal into the far corner at the other end of the pitch.
Those few seconds underlined the gulf in class that remains between a side struggling for form in the Premier League and one that has been winning matches for fun three tiers below.
The magnitude of defeat, Salford's biggest as a league club, was a disappointing outcome for a Salford away following in excess of 5,000.
Granted, only five miles separates Moor Lane from the Etihad Stadium, but Salford were being backed by a bigger following than their ground actually holds, which at least shows there is local support for a club that has struggled to attract significant crowds since their promotion to the Football League in 2019.
"I have told the players if someone had told me we would concede eight goals in seven games I would have taken it. I just didn't expect it to be all in one match," joked boss Karl Robinson afterwards.
Asked what lessons he learned from the defeat, he added: "Not to win the second round!"
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