Man City 3-1 Chelsea: Citizens win from behind thanks to another Robert Sanchez gift

Ciaran McCarthy
Erling Haaland, Manchester City, January 2025
Erling Haaland celebrates scoring for Manchester City

Manchester City came back from 1-0 down to beat Chelsea 3-1, in part thanks to another mistake by Blues goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, who was at fault for the second City goal.

It was a nightmare start for City debutant Abdukodir Khusanov, who headed the ball short of Ederson, where it was pounced on by Nicolas Jackson and rolled to Noni Madueke who slotted in a free gift after three minutes.

A minute later, the new centre-back lost the ball and then smashed into Cole Palmer in an attempt to win it back, receiving his first yellow card in English football.

He built some confidence with a good block later on, and City built themselves back up with a few promising attacks, before a decisive counter made by right-back Matheus Nunes and finished by left-back Josko Gvardiol.

City were gifted their second goal in the 68th minute, with recently mistake-ridden Sanchez deciding to half close down Erling Haaland before getting stranded near the edge of his box, allowing the Norwegian forward to lift the ball over him and into the net.

The Premier League champions then put the icing on the cake just before full-time, with Phil Foden slotted through on goal and able to beat the keeper.

On the start of the game, City boss Pep Guardiola told BBC Sport: “Not the best start. Lucky they didn’t punish us for 2-0. After we recovered emotionally and made a good performance.

“[Khusanov] doesn’t speak English so I didn’t speak to him. He’ll be fine. He only made one or two training sessions. I didn’t want to push John [Stones] returning from injury – with Wednesday’s game [against Club Brugge].

On the performance as a whole, he said: “The players were together. That was massively important. Any player can make a mistake. The fans always support the new players. He’s so young. He will learn.

“Now we’re closer to Nottingham but Bournemouth are on an impressive run.”

READ MORE: Man City 3-1 Chelsea: Citizens win from behind thanks to another Robert Sanchez gift