Semenyo Out for Eight Weeks in Man City Injury Blow

Manchester City's perfect start has come at a cost. Antoine Semenyo will be out for around eight weeks with a knee injury, Enzo Maresca confirmed on Monday — a major blow to the Premier League leaders on the eve of their Champions League meeting with AEK Athens.

The Ghana international was the one serious casualty from Saturday's bruising 3-2 win over Ipswich Town. Semenyo only came off the bench in the 76th minute, but he was seen limping after the final whistle and, as Hayters reported from Maresca's pre-match press conference, a scan has now confirmed the extent of the problem. "The only one that will be out for probably eight weeks is Antoine," Maresca said. "The rest are more or less okay."

How a 15-minute cameo became two months out

It is a cruel twist for a player who had made himself central to this City side so quickly. The 26-year-old summer signing has started six of City's opening seven Premier League matches, scoring twice and providing three assists during their perfect seven-from-seven start. Against Ipswich he was being rested — introduced late to see the game out — and instead left with the injury that will now keep him out into December.

The Sun reported that Maresca tried to put the timeline in context after the scan: "After the scan, we feel much better because it is not as bad as we expected. It could be eight weeks, so now the most important thing is for him to recover." Relief that it is not worse does not change the fixture list he will miss, starting with AEK Athens at the Etihad on Tuesday.

Haaland boost softens the blow

The news was far better on the other four players who gave City a scare on Saturday. Erling Haaland, who limped down the tunnel after scoring twice against Ipswich to reach his latest record, could be available on Tuesday. "He can be available. We will see," Maresca said. "He was quite good yesterday. Better." Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes and Nico O'Reilly are also expected to be fine, leaving Semenyo as the only long-term absentee.

That matters because City need a response in Europe. They host AEK looking to bounce back from last week's 4-2 Champions League defeat by Paris Saint-Germain, before travelling to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Saturday — the first real test of whether their perfect league start can survive a thinning squad.

What Semenyo's absence means

The so-what is width and directness. Semenyo gives Maresca something none of his other forwards quite replicate: power running in behind, pressing from the front and a genuine threat on either flank. Without him for eight weeks, City will lean harder on Jeremy Doku and their rotation options through a run that includes Villa away and two meetings with Brighton at the end of October. Ghana will also be watching closely — their star forward's World Cup year preparations are now a rehabilitation programme, not a run of games.

Beyond the Final Whistle: City can cover one injury — even a perfect team usually can — but Semenyo is not a squad player to be rotated away, he is one of the reasons the perfect start happened. Losing his directness for two months turns every tight away game into a different problem, and it puts Haaland's fitness under even more pressure at exactly the moment Maresca wanted to rest him. The title race will not be decided by this, but City's margin for error just got thinner. Can City keep their perfect start alive without Semenyo — or is this where the chasing pack finally catch them? Tell us in the comments.