Pep Guardiola's best decision this season cost Man City nothing

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola hailed Bernardo Silva after the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg win at Newcastle United

Manchester City made full use of the Carabao Cup rule change - and their immense finances - this month to bring in Antoine Semenyo and use him against Newcastle. The £62.5m signing now has two goals (it should have been three) and an assist from his first two games for his new club and has lifted them back into a space where they believe they can compete for everything this season.

You can understand why Newcastle and their fans would be frustrated with Semenyo stepping into a City team that was short on players. They, and others, would love to be able to spend that kind of money to improve their squad when they ran into problems.

Add in the fact that summer signing Rayan Cherki added the second goal and despite the fact that the Frenchman cost a third of Florian Wirtz and £25m less than what Newcastle paid for Anthony Elanga, and you can certainly see why the usual suspects would create a narrative around Pep Guardiola spending. Obviously he doesn't need to coach if he can spend his way out of his problems every time.

Such idiotic framing obviously ignores Nico O'Reilly playing defensive midfield for basically the first time in 18 months or a pair of centre-backs aged 20 and 21 respectively keeping a clean sheet in one of the toughest stadiums in the country. Semenyo and Cherki were good but they weren't keeping Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade at bay when the Newcastle onslaught came.

It also ignores one of the biggest changes this season that has come without needing a penny to be spent: making Bernardo Silva captain. Guardiola ditched the rules he had followed in all of his career to intervene and name his skipper without giving the players a vote.

Some fans were ready to let Silva go in summer after he had been played into the ground through City's dramatic drop-off last season, and it doesn't scream longevity to give the armband to somebody who will likely leave when his contract runs out in summer. Plenty still don't like that he has been used so often this season, with no one role that he carries out on the pitch attracting obvious attention.

Silva may not be in his peak years any more but that does not mean that he still cannot produce brilliance for City if you look closely enough. And even more impressive than how he allows teammates to thrive is how he immediately got the team playing in his image.

From the redemptive trip to Arsenal in September where they nearly won, right through to the statement victory at Newcastle, all of City's best performances and results this season have seen every player carry out the Silva mantra of fighting for every situation and running until the last second of injury time. Last season, for a variety of reasons, that simply didn't happen.

It was fitting on Tuesday that a question on Semenyo's start was quickly turned by Guardiola into an answer on how much City will miss Silva when he leaves. His contribution to turning City around this season has been priceless - and free.