The game had less than three minutes and, therefore, Abdokodir Khusanov had less than three minutes of debuting with Manchester City, when he began to wish that the field of Etihad Stadium opened and swallowed it.
Khusanov is only 20 years old. It is really just a child. He is the first Uzbekistan player to play in the Premier League and arrived in England last week from the LENs for £ 33 million, without knowing a word of English.
And then, after just over two minutes from his first game, against Chelsea, he bent down to try to head a ball that bounced awkwardly towards Ederson and only managed to direct it directly towards the path of Nicolas Jackson.
Jackson gave Noni Madueke, who scored. Two minutes later, Khusanov was admonished and anyone who had opted money for him to be expelled with probabilities of 88-1 was beginning to imagine his possibilities.
Khusanov was so nervous, so mortified, so insecure, that the ball could barely pass. His teammates avoided as far as possible the ball. It lasted until minute 52, when Pep Guardiola replaced him.
But this was a game that did not focus on Khusanov's error. It became another error. Another mistake made by a player who seemed horrified by what he had done, another mistake that was a reminder that this game is relentless and brutal and that his players, at this level, are subject to the highest standards.
Man City devastated Chelsea to win 3-1 at Etihad Stadium and overcome them in the table.
Noni Madueke gave the advantage to the blues after an error of the debutant Abdukodir Khusanov
Josko Gvardiol scored the City draw in the 42nd minute and never looked back.
So forget about Khusanov, who was part of a waste of £ 127 million in City transfers in January, for a minute. This game was due to a calamitous error of Chelsea goalkeeper, Robert Sánchez, a goalkeeper who almost every week experts or critics of social media tell him that it is not good enough for Chelsea.
Sanchez has been identified as a weak link in the career of one billion pounds of Chelsea for world football. They have told him that Chelsea will never win anything with him in the team. You must yearn for demonstrating that those who doubt were wrong, but that was not their day.
He was in the middle of the second half and the score was 1-1 when Sánchez ran out of his goal with the wrong assumption that he would reach a loose ball before Erling Haaland, the man of £ 250 million of the City.
He realized his mistake too late. Haaland came to the ball first and, although Sanchez turned and tried to recover his land, Haaland is simply too good and too lethal to let an error like that is unpunished. Haaland turned and threw the ball with skill over Sánchez and towards the network.
Sanchez fell to the ground briefly horrified. He hit the grass with his fist in a fury of self -esteem and then stood up to assimilate the reality of what he had done and what had cost his team. Chelsea never seemed to recover. Phil Foden expanded the advantage of the City in the last minutes.
Khusanov will live to fight another day. He seemed particularly dreary when he went to the field to congratulate his teammates, but this was his debut and will have other opportunities. Sanchez may not. Days like this will seal their destiny.
The Gelsea transfers gurus, which have already spent so much money, will prepare to spend a little more to replace it. If not now, then in summer.
And so, at the end, after the beginning of his horror show, the City beat Chelsea. They seemed comfortably the best side. And if Chelsea has a problem with its goalkeeper, he also has others. They spent one billion pounds and also forgot to buy a decent center striker. And Enzo Fernández still seems to have 108 million very badly spent sterling pounds.
Erling Haaland doubled his advantage after a surprising mistake of the Blues goalkeeper, Robert Sánchez.
Phil Foden crowned the result of the Guardiola team, scoring in his fourth consecutive league game.
He has only won one of his last seven league games and is falling quickly. The City will feel especially relieved to have defeated them here, especially after its capitulation against the PSG in the Park of the Princes on Wednesday.
After confirming the march of one of his great players, Kyle Walker, to AC Milan, needed a moral injection in the face of Wednesday's confrontation against the Brujas club, which will decide if they get into the play-offs of the Champions League And this gave them.
His 3-1 victory placed them in the top four above Bournemouth, Chelsea and Newcastle United and even if there are little hope of reaching Liverpool on the top, their victory returned them a little pride after so many recent setbacks.
Guardiola had decided to include Khusanov and his new signing, Omar Marmoush, directly in the initial eleven after the abject defeat of the City in Paris, but poor Khusanov seemed paralyzed by the nerves, even when he walked next to the row of Chelsea players, shaking his hands before the initial serve. When the game started, things worsened a lot.
After two minutes, he jumped to finish off Nicolas Jackson and failed. The ball bounced and bent down to try to return it to Ederson, but left her unfortunately short. Jackson skillfully directed the ball to Noni Madueke, who slid him towards the empty goal.
Khusanov seemed horrified. A minute later, he gave the ball deep in his own half and then knocked Cole Palmer when it seemed that Palmer was going to break into the goal. Khusanov received a yellow card. All within the first four minutes of its City debut.
The defense of the City as a whole was chaotic. A simple pass from Moses Caicedo allowed Palmer to get to the arch. Instead of shooting, Palmer directed the ball to Jackson, but Jackson took him diverted and returned it to Sancho.
Sancho tried to pass the ball to the net but Khusanov pounced on her and blocked it. For any neutral observer, there was an overwhelming feeling of relief that the poor final had done something right.
The PFA 2023-24 player has rediscovered his way lately, with seven goals in his last four Premier League games, including six goals and an assistance.
The City now occupies the fourth place in the Premier League classification and is undefeated in six league games.
The city tried to stabilize. Foden hit the post with a rough shot and, in the middle of half, Josko Gvardiol turned to Trevoh Chabah inside the Chelsea area, but raised the ball above the crossbar from six yards when he should have marked.
The City approached ten minutes before the break. They shot at the Chelsea goal and when Robert Sánchez could not contain a shot by Ilkay Gundagan, Marmoush, who looked like a debutant with more confidence than Khusanov, put him in the network. He was rejected by an off -game flag.
Gvardiol, who played as a left extreme, was the most dangerous attacker of the City and advanced to Reece James to receive a ball from Gundagan in his chest and shoot right next to Sánchez's left post.
A minute later, Gvardiol got the goal he deserved. Guondogan was the one indicated once again and when Sánchez bravely saved Matheus Nunes, the ball bounced towards Gvardiol, who swept him lush.
The City continued to increase the pressure in the second half, but it was not enough to save Khusanov from his destination. After making another entry that could easily have been considered a foul, Guardiola decided that he had already seen enough after 52 minutes and replaced him with John Stones. Khusanov received a polite applause from City fans while slowly moving away.
Chelsea gave Gundagan a lot of time to throw long balls to Haaland and, increasingly, the City began to like her chances of making the tactics yield fruits. Haaland was simply too strong and good for Chelsea's defense.
In the middle of the middle, he created an opportunity for Marmoush, stopped his man and then left the ball just for the Egyptian striker, who shot hard and went out of the goal at the last moment.
Although it was just an essay. Ederson threw a long ball out of defense and Haaland was too strong for Chalobah, who challenged him. Sanchez ran out of his goal with the apparent belief that he could first reach the loose ball, but it was a horrible mistake.
Meanwhile, Chelsea has not won in its last four games away from home and fell to the sixth place.
Haaland was always going to advance. Sanchez realized it when it was too late. He turned on his heels and tried to recover ground, but Haaland turned intelligently and threw the ball over his head towards the net. Sánchez kicked the ground in an attack of self -esteem.
Chelsea never seemed to recover and the City finished off three minutes from the end when a brilliant play by Haaland opened space for Foden to launch. He kept a persecutor group at bay and shot his shot beyond Sánchez, for whom the redemption must seem like a distant perspective.