Man City 3-1 Chelsea: Phil Foden and Erling Haaland fire Pep Guardiola’s side into the top four after Robert Sanchez’s error strewn display

Man City 3-1 Chelsea: Phil Foden and Erling Haaland fire Pep Guardiola’s side into the top four after Robert Sanchez’s error strewn display

The game was less than three minutes old, and therefore Abdokodir Khusanov was less than three minutes into his debut for Manchester City, when he first started to wish that the pitch at the Etihad Stadium would open up and swallow him up.

Khusanov is only 20 years old. He’s just a kid really. He’s the first player from Uzbekistan to play in the Premier League and he arrived in England last week from Lens for £33m, not knowing a word of English.

And then, after not much more than two minutes of his first game, against Chelsea, he stooped to try to head an awkward bouncing ball back to Ederson and only succeeded in heading it straight into the path of Nicolas Jackson.

Jackson squared it to Noni Madueke, who scored. Two minutes later, Khusanov was booked and anyone who had put any money on him to get sent off at odds of 88-1 was starting to fancy their chances.

Khusanov was so nervous, so mortified, so uncertain that he could barely pass the ball. His teammates avoided passing to him as much as they could. He lasted until the 52nd minute, when Pep Guardiola substituted him.

But this was a game that did not turn on Khusanov’s mistake. It turned on another mistake. Another mistake committed by a player who looked horrified by what he had done, another mistake that was a reminder that this game is unforgiving and brutal and that its players, at this level, are held to the highest standards.

Man City swept Chelsea aside to win 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium and leapfrog them in the table

Noni Madueke gave the Blues an early lead after an error from debutant Abdukodir Khusanov

Noni Madueke gave the Blues an early lead after an error from debutant Abdukodir Khusanov

Josko Gvardiol notched an equaliser for City in the 42nd minute and they never looked back

Josko Gvardiol notched an equaliser for City in the 42nd minute and they never looked back

So forget Khusanov, who was part of a £127m City January transfer splurge, for a minute. This game turned on a calamitous error by Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, a goalkeeper who is told almost every week by pundits or armchair critics on social media that he is not good enough for Chelsea.

Sanchez has been identified as a weak link in Chelsea’s billion pound trolley dash around world football. He has been told that Chelsea will never win anything with him in the side. He must yearn to prove those doubters wrong but this was not his day.

It was midway through the second half and the scores were locked at 1-1 when Sanchez rushed out of his goal in the mistaken assumption that he would get to a loose ball before Erling Haaland, City’s £250m man.

He realised his error too late. Haaland got to the ball first and even though Sanchez turned tail and tried to regain his ground, Haaland is simply too good and too deadly to let a mistake like that go unpunished. Haaland spun and chipped the ball expertly over Sanchez and into the net.

Sanchez fell to the ground briefly in horror. He beat his fist into the turf in a fury of self-loathing and then stood to take in the reality of what he had done and what he had cost his team. Chelsea never looked like recovering. Phil Foden extended City’s lead in the dying minutes.

Khusanov will live to fight another day. He looked particularly lugubrious as he walked on to the pitch to congratulate his teammates but this was his debut and he will get other chances. Sanchez may not. Days like this will seal his fate.

The Chelsea transfer gurus, who have already spent so much money, will be preparing to spend some more to replace him. If not now, then in the summer.

And so, in the end, after their horror show start, City eased past Chelsea. They looked comfortably the better side. And if Chelsea have a problem with their goalkeeper, they have others, too. They spent £1bn and forgot to buy a decent centre forward, too. And Enzo Fernandez still looks like £108m that was very badly spent.

Erling Haaland doubled their lead after a shocking error from Blues keeper Robert Sanchez

Erling Haaland doubled their lead after a shocking error from Blues keeper Robert Sanchez

Phil Foden capped off the result for Guardiola's side, scoring in his fourth straight league game

Phil Foden capped off the result for Guardiola’s side, scoring in his fourth straight league game

They have only won one of their last seven league games and they are falling fast. City will be particularly relieved to have beaten them here, particularly after their capitulation against PSG in the Parc des Princes on Wednesday.

As the departure of one of their great players, Kyle Walker, to AC Milan was confirmed, they needed a morale boost ahead of their showdown against Club Bruges this Wednesday, which will decide whether they squeeze into the Champions League play-offs and this gave it to them.

Their 3-1 victory lifted them above Bournemouth, Chelsea and Newcastle United into the top four and even if there is little hope of them catching Liverpool at the top, their win restored a little pride after so many recent reverses.

Guardiola had decided to throw Khusanov and fellow new signing, Omar Marmoush, straight into the starting line-up after City’s abject defeat in Paris but poor Khusanov had looked paralysed by nerves, even when he was walking down the line of Chelsea players, shaking their hands before kick-off. When the game actually began, things got a lot worse.

After two minutes, he jumped for a header with Nicolas Jackson and missed it. The ball bounced and he stooped to try to head it back to Ederson but left it woefully short. Jackson squared it adroitly to Noni Madueke, who slid it into the empty net.

Khusanov looked horrified. A minute later, he gave the ball away deep in his own half and then brought down Cole Palmer when Palmer looked set to burst through on goal. Khusanov was shown a yellow card. All inside the first four minutes of his City debut.

City’s defending as a whole was shambolic. A simple pass forward from Moises Caicedo played Palmer through on goal. Instead of shooting, Palmer squared the ball to Jackson but Jackson took it wide and laid it back to Sancho.

Sancho tried to pass the ball into the net but Khusanov threw himself at it and blocked it. For any watching neutral, there was an overwhelming sense of relief that the poor guy had finally done something right.

The 2023-24 PFA Player of the Year has rediscovered his form as of late, with seven goal contributions in his last four Premier League games, including six goals and one assist

The 2023-24 PFA Player of the Year has rediscovered his form as of late, with seven goal contributions in his last four Premier League games, including six goals and one assist

City now lie fourth place in the Premier League table and are undefeated in six league games

City now lie fourth place in the Premier League table and are undefeated in six league games

City tried to steady themselves. Foden hit the post with a rasping drive and, midway through the half, Josko Gvardiol turned inside Trevoh Chalobah inside the Chelsea area but lifted the ball over the bar from six yards out when he should have scored.

City went close again ten minutes before half-time. They peppered shots at the Chelsea goal and when Robert Sanchez could not hold an effort from Ilkay Gundogan, Marmoush, who looked an altogether more confident debutant than Khusanov, rammed it into the net. He was denied by an offside flag.

Gvardiol, who was playing like a left winger, was City’s most dangerous attacker and he got in front of Reece James to take a ball from Gundogan on his chest and poke his shot just side of Sanchez’s left hand post.

A minute later, Gvardiol got the goal he deserved. Gundogan was the prompt once more and when Sanchez saved bravely from Matheus Nunes, the ball bounced out to Gvardiol, who swept it home exuberantly.

City continued to turn up the heat in the second half but it was not quite enough to save Khusanov from his fate. After he made another tackle that might easily have been judged a foul, Guardiola decided he had seen enough after 52 minutes and substituted him for John Stones. Khusanov got polite applause from the City fans as he walked slowly off.

Chelsea gave Gundogan plenty of time to hit searching long balls forward to Haaland and, increasingly, City began to like their odds of making the tactic pay. Haaland was simply too strong and too good for the Chelsea defence.

Midway through the half, he made a chance for Marmoush, holding off his man and then laying the ball square for the Egypt forward, who fizzed in a vicious shot that curled away from goal at the very last instant.

It was just a dry run, though. Ederson launched a long ball out of defence and Haaland was too strong for Chalobah who challenged him for it. Sanchez rushed from his goal in the apparent belief that he could get to the loose ball first but it was a horrible error.

Meanwhile, Chelsea are winless in their last four away games and sliipped to sixth place

Meanwhile, Chelsea are winless in their last four away games and sliipped to sixth place

Haaland was always going to beat him to it. Sanchez realised that when it was too late. He turned on his heels and tried to regain his ground but Haaland turned smartly and lofted the ball over his head into the net. Sanchez kicked the ground in a fit of self-loathing.

Chelsea never looked as if they would recover and City finished things off three minutes from the end when some brilliant hold-up play by Haaland opened up space for Foden to dash into. He held off a chasing pack and slotted his shot past Sanchez, for whom redemption must have felt like a distant prospect.


Source From: Football | Mail Online

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