Former Premier League defender Gary Cahill has backed Manchester City centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov after his difficult debut against Chelsea on Saturday night.

The Uzbekistan international moved to City last week and made his debut for Pep Guardiola's team on Saturday. He lined-up alongside Manuel Akanji in defence but embarked on a disaster in the first 10 minutes.

In the third minute, he was at fault for Noni Madueke's opener after he failed to deal with a long ball. The header back to goalkeeper Ederson was weak to allow Nicolas Jackson to square the ball to Madueke.

READ MORE: What Man City players and fans did after Abdukodir Khusanov error vs Chelsea

READ MORE: What Abdukodir Khusanov did after debut errors shows he can be a success at Man City

Almost immediately after, Khusanov was then booked for a panic challenge on Cole Palmer. Fortunately for the young defender, he recovered and improved before coming off in the 54th minute for John Stones.

City turned the game around thanks to goals from Josko Gvardiol, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden. After the win, Cahill and Jamie Redknapp defended Khusanov's debut and tipped him to recover.

"When you've got an established back four playing together, you can come in when the team's winning week in, week out," Redknapp said. "Last year, this would have been an easy job. But this season, it's a lot more difficult and throwing him into an environment like this today was a mistake.

"He's got to learn from it and long-term, it will probably help him. After he made those initial mistakes, he did get better. It was a really difficult day for him. I hope it doesn't damage him long-term. I thought the fans were really good with him at the end. He will learn from this and hopefully become a strong player."

Cahill, who won two Premier League titles and the Champions League with Chelsea, defended the 20-year-old. "If I bring myself back to when I was a young player, [his] reaction after the goal [and] the booking, you're replaying that in your head many times," he said.

"The further down the line in my career, I managed to dismiss that and worry about it after.

"As a young player, I was the same. When he did settle down, he made a couple of good blocks. Football's a rollercoaster. He's a young player and this won't be the first time and it won't be the last time."