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Manchester City started their Premier League title defence with a win thanks to goals from Erling Haaland and. Mateo Kovacic defeated 2-0 by Enzo Maresca In his first match in charge of Chelsea, Haaland marked his 100th appearance for the club with a goal in his 91st appearance, before Kovacic scored on his return to Stamford Bridge to give Pep Guardiola’s men a perfect start to their bid to win a fifth consecutive English top-flight title. City lost all four players from their Euro 2024 finalists — RhodriKyle Wacker, john stones And Phil Foden – From the start, Guardiola had opted to give him extra time to recover from summer fatigue.
Nevertheless, the champions managed to hold their own against one of the few teams they failed to beat in the league last season.
Maresca faces the difficult task of building a functioning squad, with 43 players on the squad and over 50 players registered including those on loan.
The consequences of these difficult decisions were visible even before the match started. Raheem SterlingThe ‘s camp released a statement expressing their disappointment at not being included in the matchday squad.
ben chilwell Conor Gallagher and Romelu Lukaku He is among those who have not been given a squad number.
None of the nine players Chelsea have signed so far in the summer have featured in Maresca’s starting squad.
Even more surprising is that, Enzo Fernandez He was named captain despite being embroiled in a race controversy over a social media post following Argentina’s Copa America win last month.
On the contrary, cities are a model of continuity and ongoing excellence.
Haaland was one of the few City stars to have taken the summer off from international tournaments and it took him just 18 minutes to make his mark.
Jeremy Doku’s low cross is deflected bernardo silva On the way to the Norwegian and he calmly drowned Robert Sanchez.
Kevin De Bruyne Curled inches away and Sanchez leapt high to stop Doku’s deflected shot.
But Chelsea held on to the lead in the first half and should have equalised before halftime.
Ederson Spilled Cole Palmer‘s cool shot but was saved by Nicholas Jackson was inexplicably ruled offside before turning the ball in on the rebound.
Foden was forced to come on at half-time earlier than Guardiola had expected after the lively Savinho had to leave the field injured in his first Premier League appearance.
The match played at a much slower pace than is typical for a big Premier League match, which was evident due to the lack of pre-season minutes for many players.
Chelsea did most of the pressing for an equaliser but City also had chances to extend their lead in doing so.
Sanchez made a superb save to deny Haaland a second before De Bruyne once again hit the ball inches wide of target while unmarked on the edge of the area.
However, it was a mistake by Chelsea goalkeeper that sealed their fate.
Kovacic was allowed to flow into midfield unchallenged and fired into the top corner, only to be met by a weak hand from Sanchez.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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