Rayan Cherki delighted to be back and determined to bring joy to Man City fans

Rayan Cherki was delighted with his Manchester City return and thanked his team-mates for making the game “simple”.

Cherki made his first start for over two months in City’s 3-1 Carabao Cup win at Swansea on Wednesday after suffering a thigh injury in August.

The 22-year-old France playmaker capped a player-of-the-match performance with his third City goal following a summer switch from Lyon for an initial fee of 36million euros (£30.5m).

“I feel very good because I was injured for a long time and I’m very happy to be back,” Cherki said.

“I worked very hard with the physio to come back rapidly. I took my time but I worked a lot and I’m very happy to be back and play with my mates.

“The most important thing is the team, not me. I want to win all the games.

“I feel very good because with these players it’s simple. We speak the same football so when we are on the pitch we take pleasure.”

City won the competition four times in a row under Pep Guardiola from 2018 to 2021 but have not gone past the quarter-final stage since.

They will now host Brentford in the last eight of the competition in mid-December and Cherki feels City, who rested top scorer Erling Haaland at Swansea, are focused on providing success for their fans.

“The team is very good, the players are unbelievable, and I want to win all the games,” said Cherki, who has been lauded by Guardiola as one of the biggest talents “technically and individually” he has ever seen.

“For me it’s very important that when the spectators come to the stadium they take pleasure.

“My life is good but I don’t know if the spectators have a lot of happy things in their life, so when they come to their stadium I want them to take pleasure and they go back home with a smile.

“(Haaland) is important for the team because he scores a lot of goals. We need him, but he needs us.”

Swansea had beaten Premier League outfit Nottingham Forest in the previous round and gave a good account of themselves after taking an early lead through Goncalo Franco.

The Swans are currently 13th in the Sky Bet Championship and return to league action at Charlton on Saturday.

Head coach Alan Sheehan said: “I want to bring these nights to the club.

“We are building, we’ve had 12 players in, 18 players out (this summer) but we want to get there.

“We are three points off the play-offs so ultimately it’s about finding that rhythm in the league.”