Manuel Akanji admitted he was trying to ‘protect’ debutant Abdukodir Khusanov after the Man City defender endured a nightmare start to life in the Premier League.
Khusanov’s weak header back to Ederson led to Chelsea taking the lead in the third minute before he was booked in the fourth minute.
The 20-year-old looked visibly shook and though things improved, Pep Guardiola took him off nine minutes into the second half for John Stones as City went on to win 3-1.
Akanji, who was at centre-half alongside Khusanov, said: ‘I tried to protect him and not bring him into situations where it could be really tricky, especially against a team like Chelsea who have so many good individual players.