Antoine Semenyo shows Pep Guardiola how he can instantly improve Man City

Manchester City thrashed Exeter 10-1 in the FA Cup third round and Pep Guardiola will be delighted that a strong team delivered

Pep Guardiola is not backing down, he's doubling down. And he already has eyes on creating more history with Manchester City with a fourth consecutive FA Cup final after a 10-1 thrashing of Exeter.

Saturday was the perfect occasion for him to rest players in a small squad that has been hit by fatigue in injuries in the last few weeks and dropped points in their last three Premier League games. The visit of a League One side could have seen a raft of academy players start to rest legs for the Carabao Cup semi-final, Manchester derby, or Champions League games coming up in the next two weeks.

Instead, having started the week with two senior centre-backs available to him Guardiola has managed to play three for the last two games. Erling Haaland retained his place for the FA Cup game and Rodri, Rayan Cherki and new £62.5m signing Antoine Semenyo joined him in the line-up; Bernardo Silva and Jeremy Doku came off the bench with City 6-0 up after an hour.

It certainly showed the magic of the cup to the 8,000 Exeter fans who had travelled up to the Etihad, even if it completely removed their hopes of another payday from the competition from the moment the team was named. Max Alleyne completed a dream week with the opening goal after 12 minutes and Guardiola - watching from the stands as he served a one-match suspension after picking up three yellow cards - never had reason to get out of his seat in a professional performance.

Ryan McAidoo, a 17-year-old winger signed from Chelsea in 2024, was bright on the right wing and made sensible contributions for the first and fourth goals, and it was sweet for Rodri to hammer home the second of the game - and his first since May 2024 - and then go out of his way to thank the crowd for their support during a rubbish 18 months for him.

After a quiet start, Semenyo livened up in the second half with a neat assist for Rico Lewis and then a well-taken goal before he was swiftly taken off. Exeter may not be the best yardstick yet there were already signs that he can hit the ground running with his new teammates and to be already providing competition for Jeremy Doku is exactly the sort of strength that Guardiola wants and needs.

A 10-1 thrashing - with none of those scored by Haaland - is what Guardiola wants too. It is the joint-biggest winning margin the manager has enjoyed, level with when they beat Burton 9-0 in January 2019; that season, they overcame some sticky moments in the winter to win a domestic clean sweep.

This squad does not look anything like as strong as that one did seven years ago. It does look stronger than it did a week ago though, and as they head to Newcastle for their semi-final City will absolutely take that.