He's so young. He will learn

BOSS DEFENDS KHUSANOV AND DECISION TO PLAY HIM AFTER HE STARTS WITH A COSTLY MISTAKE

- JOE BRAY

PEP Guardiola defended his decision to throw Abdukodir Khusanov into his Manchester City debut against Chelsea at the Etihad, saying he had no other option.

With Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake injured, and John Stones still not fully fit, Guardiola went into the top four showdown against Chelsea declaring he only had one fit centre-back in Manuel Akanji, as well as the 20-year-old debutant Khusanov.

It was the Uzbek who started ahead of the more experienced Stones, but the debutant was at fault for Chelsea's opener after two minutes and collected a yellow card moments later.

Khusanov's poor header let Chelsea in for an opening goal after just two minutes on his debut, and he earned a booking shortly after. His first half performance showed flashes of promise but plenty of nerves and City fans began to applaud his completed passes to offer support.

Guardiola replaced Khusanov on 50 minutes after giving John Stones time to warm up after the interval, and explained he did not want to throw in Stones from the start ahead of the big Champions League fixture on Wednesday - when Khusanov will be ineligible.

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca admitted that his side purposely targeted Khusanov in the opening stages.

"I think we exploited quite well in terms of we score the first goal, we could score the second and he had a yellow card as well," said Maresca. "We could score the second, unfortunately we missed [the chance] and the game was there."