After giving up an early goal to Chelsea, Manchester City recovered to defeat them 3-1 on Saturday, saving the blushes of their rookie defender Abdukodir Khusanov, whose mistake gave the visitors the lead at the Etihad Stadium.
With the victory, Pep Guardiola’s team moves up to fourth place in the standings with 41 points, 12 points behind leaders Liverpool, who still have a game to play, and one point ahead of Chelsea, who drop to sixth.
After letting the ball bounce over him and then underhitting his header back to goalkeeper Ederson, Khusanov, 20, who was signed from Lens this week, had the worst possible start to his City career.
This allowed Nicolas Jackson to slip in and square the ball for Noni Madueke to score.
After failing to settle with English football, Uzbekistan international Khusanov was substituted early in the second half by John Stones after being booked a minute later for a challenge on Cole Palmer.
Another recent hire Omar Marmoush, who also made his debut, performed better up front.
In the first forty-five minutes, the Egypt striker caused a lot of problems for Chelsea’s defence, and his hard work up front helped hold the visitors at bay.
Three minutes prior to halftime, defender Josko Gvardiol was the first to react and slot in a rebound to equalise the score. Erling Haaland grabbed a long ball in the 68th minute and looked up to find Robert Sanchez far off his line, lifting the ball over the hapless Chelsea keeper to give the home team the lead 2-1.
Before releasing Phil Foden, who charged through the centre and placed the ball past Sanchez to complete the three points, Haaland skilfully held the ball up close to the halfway line.
