by Pep Guardiola branded Manchester City’s reaction to an early error from debutant Abdukodir Khusanov “unbelievable” as they recovered to beat Chelsea 3-1.
Khusanov, the 20-year-old, signed in goal for £33.6million, was seriously at fault as Noni Madueke put the visitors in front two minutes in, and moments later the Uzbekistan international was reserved in a separate incident.
But Josko Gvardiol brought City level in the 42nd minute before Erling Haaland capitalized on another poor error from Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to continue.
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 draw.
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 been around for many years. It’s not the best start to class, but dealing with Jackson, with Cole, with all these incredible players is not easy. And I love the reaction of his comrades.
“He didn’t do a training session with us, he didn’t do anything because we came from Paris, so it was just recovery, recovery, recovery. And yes, he will learn.
“He’s young, he’ll learn, I’m pretty sure. Take a lesson from that and the reaction from the team…the reaction was incredible. »
Khusanov was replaced in the 52nd minute by John Stones, a player Guardiola is keen to get back up to speed with Wednesday’s crunch Champions League match against club Brugge – 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 for the beat.
Chelsea have won just one of their last seven Premier League games, dropping the first four. They had chances to double their early lead, notably when Palmer cleared but overloaded 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 cut back and put City ahead just after the hour.
It was Sanchez’s second major error of the week after failing to muster a cross to allow Wolves to briefly pull level on Monday and the fifth of the season which led directly to a goal – more than any other Premier player League.
“We trust Robert for sure, but the first one who is completely aware that he is making mistakes at the moment is Robert,” said Enzo Maresca.
“Of course we continue to trust Robert. We trust Robert but now we have a whole week (until West Ham, visit Stamford Bridge), we see the reaction and then we decide for the next game. »
Chelsea have fallen to sixth, with Monday’s win over Wolves their only league success since beating Brentford 2-1 on December 15.
“In my opinion, we are a better team a month ago,” Maresca said. “These kinds of games are going to make us better, we need to have this kind of experience. We can be third or sixth, each game can change it a little. We’re focused and trying to improve play after play.”
