SPECIAL OINE THE CHERRY ON TOP

Semenyo makes most of rule change to give City the edge

- BY LEE RYDER

ANTOINE SEMENYO has been a Manchester City player for less than a week - but is already proving to be a vital cog for Pep Guardiola.

Semenyo signed from Bournemouth earlier this month in a deal worth £64million and scored on his debut in Saturday's 10-1 FA Cup thrashing of Exeter.

And last night he found the net again for his new side, opening the scoring at St James' Park, tapping home against the reigning Carabao Cup champions.

City have struggled to find a regular goalscorer not named Erling Haaland this season. Only Phil Foden and Tijjani Reijnders have more than two in the Premier League. Semenyo is yet to feature for City in the title race but manager Guardiola will be glad for his new signing to have already found his scoring boots.

The Ghana forward had already played for Bournemouth in the Carabao Cup this campaign, but was allowed to play for his new team due to a rule change meaning a player is permitted to play for up to two clubs in the competition in a season. He even thought he had a second of the night, neatly flicking home from a corner, but a lengthy VAR check deemed Haaland to be offside and interfering with play.