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1 day ago
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After scoring on 68 minutes, Erling Haaland’s expression was pure box-office – and who could blame him? Manchester City had hit the front, Chelsea were cowed, and relief mainlined through Pep Guardiola.
The ruthless striker’s 18th Premier League goal of the season was a sweet lofted effort fashioned over a backpedalling Robert Sánchez in the Chelsea goal: Haaland watched the ball kiss the net, then offered a comical what-else-do-you-expect face to the jubilant congregation.
It sealed three welcome points following the 4-2 midweek capitulation at Paris Saint-Germain and the poorest of openings here from City’s new £33.8m defender, Abdukodir Khusanov. In these strange times, Phil Foden’s late clincher was a fillip. But who knows how City will perform when requiring a result against Club Brugge to stay in Europe on Wednesday.
Khusanov’s nightmare took only three minutes to develop. First, he misjudged a leap and headed air, not ball. This caused him to flap when bidding to recover and a backheader to Ederson was far too short. In nipped Nicolas Jackson whose deft outside-of-the-boot flick was easy to slide home for Noni Madueke.
The 20-year-old from Tashkent looked shellshocked, close to tears. Guardiola had head in hands, wondering if throwing him straight in was folly. The verdict would have been undeniable if Cole Palmer had scored moments later from the free-kick Khusanov gave away for chopping down the Chelsea midfielder.
Khusanov, who had been forced into the foul after handing the former City player the ball, was booked by John Brooks – Guardiola, again, held his head – and manager and player sighed with relief when Palmer spooned the set piece over.
Can a debut start any worse for a defender bought to help mend a team’s defensive ills? After Madueke’s strike only Ederson had spoken to the new boy to offer solace: poor from the rest of the team.
Far better was Khusanov’s next act which was to block a point-blank Jadon Sancho effort following yet another Chelsea foray. At the other end Omar Marmoush was enjoying a less torrid time. Twice he made sharp breaks, though twice he was offside.
The Egyptian left Eintracht Frankfurt as the Bundesliga’s second-leading scorer. When Josko Gvardiol shimmied on to his right foot a dash of Marmoush’s scoring prowess would have been a boon as he blasted over Sánchez’s goal.
Chelsea had arrived with only one victory – last week’s win over Wolves – in their previous six league games but were padding about the turf and pinging the ball around as if all had been victories. That was until, suddenly, Sánchez steered an Ilkay Gündogan shot into the feet of Marmoush who finished but was ruled – yet again – offside.
Now, at last, City took control. Then, with Guardiola demanding a forward ball, Mateo Kovacic chipped to Gvardiol whose chested-control took the left-back clear. His flick went narrowly wide but the left-back soon had the equaliser.
This time Gundogan played a front-to-back pass to Matheus Nunes who ran through the middle. When the ball squeezed left, after Marc Cucurella and Sánchez closed down City’s right-back, the marauding Gvardiol scored.
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Guardiola, who resisted replacing Khusanov at half-time, saw more sloppiness when Gvardiol’s ball was too short for Gundogan in City’s defensive third. Chelsea failed to profit from this as they did moments later when Palmer was handed possession. But here were the type of sluggish mistakes that have cost the champions in their slump.
It must have been contagious as next Levi Colwill missed Gundogan’s flighted 30-yard pass and Haaland was galloping in. The striker has a crafty move that features a drag of the ball onto his left and a pull of the trigger faster than seems possible. But Sánchez saved and Chelsea escaped.
Khusanov’s debut-to-forget was over after 54 minutes and on jogged John Stones to replace the centre-back. The new signing will have far better days so the best to say is that he did not see red after the very early yellow card.
Gradually, City exerted control. Chelsea were pushed back into an unwanted game of their defence against their hosts’ attack.
Now came Haaland’s moment. Trevoh Chalobah struggled under an Ederson punt and the No 9 took over. Sánchez, puzzlingly, had advanced, so the Norwegian coolly lobbed him. Then drank up the acclaim.
Late on came Foden’s sixth goal in six games, the assist Haaland’s, the killer finish the playmaker’s after galloping through.
