Manchester City’s Norwegian striker #09 Erling Haaland (C) celebrates after scoring his team first goal in the course of the English Premier League football match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Stamford Bridge in London on August 18, 2024. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)
Pep Guardiola praised Manchester City’s attitude to defy a disrupted preseason and get their Premier League title defense off to a winning start by beating Chelsea 2-0 on Sunday.
Goals from Erling Haaland and Mateo Kovacic inflicted defeat on Enzo Maresca in his first match in control of the Blues.
City was shorn of all 4 of their Euro 2024 finalists — Rodri, Kyle Waker, John Stones and Phil Foden — from the beginning as Guardiola opted to offer them overtime off to get well from their summer exertions.
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The likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias and Manuel Akanji did play the 90 minutes despite their late return to training after reaching the knockout stages of the Euros.
Yet, the champions were still in a position to lay down a marker against one in all the few sides they did not beat within the league last season.
“I actually didn’t expect it. I do know what these guys can do, but the primary day and lack of coaching,” said Guardiola.
“We had two or three days to organize, but we solved this lack of many things with our commitment.
“You can’t imagine how privileged and fortunate I’m to live these experiences with this incredible group of players.”
Maresca has the tough task of molding a functioning team unit from a bloated Chelsea squad that has 43 players and over 50 on the books including those on loan.
Sterling axed
The results of those difficult decisions played out even before kick-off as Raheem Sterling’s camp released a press release expressing his dismay at being not noted of the matchday squad.
Ben Chilwell was one other to face the cull, while Conor Gallagher and Romelu Lukaku are amongst those to not have been handed squad numbers.
None of Chelsea’s nine summer signings thus far were included in Maresca’s starting line-up.
Much more surprisingly, Enzo Fernandez was named captain despite being embroiled in a race row for a post on social media after Argentina’s Copa America victory last month.
City, in contrast, is a model of continuity and consistent excellence.
READ: Man City celebrates, Euro domination drains Club World Cup drama
Haaland was one in all City’s few stars to have had a summer off from international tournaments and took just 18 minutes to make his mark.
Jeremy Doku’s low cross was deflected by Bernardo Silva into the Norwegian’s path and he coolly dinked over Robert Sanchez.
But Chelsea ended the primary half within the ascendency and may have been level before the break.
Ederson spilled Cole Palmer’s tame shot but was bailed out by Nicolas Jackson’s straying needlessly offside before he turned within the rebound.
Foden was forced into motion sooner than Guardiola would have hoped at half-time because the vigorous Savinho was forced off injured on his Premier League debut.
The shortage of pre-season minutes for a lot of on show was apparent within the more pedestrian pace than normal for a significant Premier League clash.
Chelsea did many of the pressing for an equalizer but offered City probabilities to increase their lead in doing so.
“I feel we competed thoroughly for much of the sport. We were similar if not higher,” said Maresca.
“The performance was there but we didn’t take the probabilities. Probably the large difference was contained in the box.”
Sanchez made a high-quality save to disclaim Haaland a second goal however the Chelsea goalkeeper was at fault for the strike that sealed their fate.
Kovacic was allowed to burst through the midfield unchallenged and took aim for the highest corner, which he found due to a weak hand from Sanchez.
