Defender now carries weight of his debut nightmare

ABDUKODIR Khusanov will have been dreaming of his Manchester City debut from the moment he first learned of their interest this month.

- JOE BRAY

It turned into a nightmare and he must now carry the weight of having one of the worst debuts in recent memory.

Five minutes in and Khusanov will have been questioning his entire move to City. First, the 20-year-old defender missed a header, then let it bounce, and then looked to nudge the ball back to Ederson - only for Chelsea to nip in and score the opener. Two minutes later, Khusanov passed straight to Cole Palmer and earned a booking for bringing him down.

The next time he had the ball - a simple pass back to the goalkeeper - he was cheered from the stands. It was an act of encouragement for a player whose confidence had completely evaporated in the space of 240 seconds. But it won't have done much to cheer him up as it shouldn't have been needed - cheering a 10-yard pass under zero pressure.