Pep Guardiola was full of praise for his charges after Manchester City managed to recover from a goal down to beat Chelsea 3-1 in the Premier League.
It was a nightmare start for City debutant Abdukodir Khusanov, who headed the ball short of Ederson, where it was pounced on by Nicolas Jackson and rolled to Noni Madueke who slotted in a free gift after three minutes.
A minute later, the new center-back lost the ball and smashed into Cole Palmer to win it back, receiving his first yellow card in English football.
He built some confidence with a good block later on, and City built themselves up with a few promising attacks before a decisive counter made by right-back Matheus Nunes and finished by left-back Josko Gvardiol.
City were gifted their second goal in the 68th minute. Recently mistake-ridden Robert Sanchez decided to half-close down Erling Haaland before getting stranded near the edge of his box, allowing the Norwegian forward to lift the ball over him and into the net.
The Premier League champions then put the icing on the cake just before full-time, with Phil Foden slotted through on goal and able to beat the keeper.
At the start of the game, City boss Pep Guardiola told BBC Sport: “Not the best start. Luckily they didn’t punish us for 2-0. After we recovered emotionally and made a good performance.
“[Khusanov] doesn’t speak English so I didn’t speak to him. He’ll be fine. He only made one or two training sessions. I didn’t want to push John [Stones] returning from injury – with Wednesday’s game [against Club Brugge].
On the performance as a whole, he said: “The players were together. That was massively important. Any player can make a mistake. The fans always support the new players. He’s so young. He will learn.
“Now we’re closer to Nottingham but Bournemouth are on an impressive run.”
