Pep Guardiola called Manchester City’s reaction to an early error from debutant Abdukodir Khusanov “amazing” as they recovered to beat Chelsea 3-1.
Khusanov, the 20-year-old signed from Lens for £33.6million, was badly at fault as Noni Madueke put the visitors in front just two minutes in, and moments later the Uzbekistan international was booked in a separate incident.
But Josko Gvardiol brought City level in the 42nd minute before Erling Haaland capitalised on yet another poor error from Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to put City in front, before Phil Foden wrapped up the points late on, sending City into the top four as Chelsea’s recent poor run continued.
Khusanov, who speaks limited English and has barely trained with his new team-mates, was given a baptism of fire against Chelsea and looked at risk of being swallowed up early on, with a terrible header back towards Ederson swept up by Nicolas Jackson who squared for Madueke to tap in.
Khusanov picked up a yellow card moments later after losing the ball and fouling Cole Palmer, but he eventually settled down.
“He will take a lesson,” Guardiola said. “He’s so young, he’s come for many years. It’s not the best start of course, but dealing with Jackson, with Cole, with all these incredible players is not easy. And I love the reaction of his mates.
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“He didn’t make one training session with us, he didn’t make absolutely anything because we came from Paris, so it was just recovery, recovery, recovery. And yeah, he will learn.
“He’s young, he will learn, I’m pretty sure. Take a lesson from that and the reaction from the team… the reaction was amazing.”
Khusanov was replaced in the 52nd minute by John Stones, a player Guardiola is keen to get back up to speed with Wednesday’s critical Champions League match against Club Brugge looming – for which City’s new signings are not eligible.
“I made the substitution mainly for the yellow card, not just for the mistake,” Guardiola said. “Especially I need John for Wednesday, because (Omar) Marmoush, Khusanov and Victor (Reis) cannot play. I need John and John came on for the rhythm.”
Chelsea have won just one of their last seven Premier League games, dropping out of the top four. They had chances to double their early lead, not least when Palmer went clear but overhit a pass to Jadon Sancho when the shot was on.
Instead the focus fell on Sanchez. The goalkeeper came off his line to try to meet a long ball from City stopper Ederson but only allowed Haaland to chip him and put City ahead just after the hour.
It was Sanchez’s second major error of the week after he failed to gather a cross to allow Wolves to briefly draw level on Monday, and fifth of the season that led directly to a goal – more than any other Premier League player.
“We trust Robert for sure but the first one that is completely aware he is making mistakes in this moment is Robert,” Enzo Maresca said.
“For sure, we continue to trust Robert. We trust Robert but now we have one entire week (until West Ham visit Stamford Bridge), we see the reaction and then we decide for the next game.”
Chelsea dropped to sixth, with Monday’s win over Wolves their only league success since they beat Brentford 2-1 on December 15.
“In my opinion we’re a better team than one month ago,” Maresca said. “These kind of games are going to make us better, we need to live this kind of experience. We can be third or sixth, every game can change it a little bit. We’re focused and trying to improve game after game.”
