Manuel Akanji admits that he was trying to “protect” the new child of £ 33 million of Man City, Abdukodir Khusanov during the beginning of the nightmare.

Manuel Akanji admitted that he was trying to “protect” the debutant of Abdukodir Khusanov after Man City's defender endured a nightmare start in life in the Premier League.

The weak head of Khusanov back to Ederson led Chelsea to take the lead in the third minute before being reserved in the fourth minute.

The 20-year-old seemed visibly shaken and, although things improved, Pep Guardiola took him nine minutes to the second half for John Stones when City won 3-1.

Akanji, who was in the central half with Khusanov, said: 'I tried to protect him and not lead him to situations in which he could really be complicated, especially against a team like Chelsea that has so many good individual players.

'I simply tried to raise it and tell him not to think too much, but move on and maybe play the safest pass with Eddy (Ederson) in his next action and win his next duel to recover his trust. I think that's the only thing you can really do.

Khusanov was born in Uzbekistan and has spent the last three years playing the club's football in Belarus and France before City signed it from Lens for £ 33 million earlier for the week. He is the first Uzbek player to sign for a Premier League club.

Guardiola added after the game that he could not speak directly with Khusanov, since he still does not know English, but Akanji emphasized that he is confident that his new teammate will exceed the language barrier in time.

Manuel Akanji admitted that he was trying to “protect” Abdukodir Khusanov against Chelsea

Khusanov's Manchester City debut began with an error that gave Chelsea leadership

The 20 -year -old seemed visibly shaken and was finally retired early in the second half

“He (Khusanov) says he understands English better than French, so I speak English with him,” Akanji said. 'I think he will improve his English, he needs to do it because we need to communicate, it is especially important as a central one to help our teammates around us. I think he understands a lot. He really can't speak well yet, but he will definitely come.

The next city game is Wednesday at the Brugge club in the Champions League, where they must win to qualify for the champions League play-offs.

Anything less than the victory will see them eliminated in the phase of the League and Akanji insisted that each game is “big” for the Guardiola side if they want to win covers this season. The last time they were without trophies in a campaign was during the first season by Guardiola in 2016-17.

“We only have great games now for the rest of the season because we put ourselves in this position in the Champions League and in the League,” Akanji said. “We know that if we want to have the opportunity to raise a trophy this year, we need to win every game we have and that is the mentality.”