CITY'S STAND-INS ARE STAND-OUTS V BLUES

Guardiola gives top’ praise to Kovacic, who seals 2-0 win in Maresca’s Chelsea debut

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Pep Guardiola's decision to give many of Manchester City's star players more time to recover from Euro 2024 paid dividends on Aug 18, when their stand-ins helped the defending English Premier League champions to a 2-0 win at Chelsea whose coach Enzo Maresca was making his debut.

Kyle Walker, John Stones and Phil Foden stalwarts for England on their run to the Euro final in July were on the bench at Stamford Bridge and Spain's Rodri was out of the squad altogether as he recovers from an injury picked up in Germany.

In came right-back Rico Lewis and winger Savinho, who both tormented Chelsea, while Mateo Kovacic, Rodri's understudy, sealed the win with City's second goal in the 84th minute after Erling Haaland, fresh from a whole summer off, opened the scoring in the 18th minute.

"We didn't expect it. We are away from our best, so three points is the good news. For me, it is an honour to be in charge of these guys. I'm so fortunate, I could not say more," Guardiola said when asked about the players who stepped up.