It was a slightly sheepish Abdukodir Khusanov that waved to the Etihad at full-time but he left a difficult debut behind with three points and hearty hugs from his teammates.

The first player from Uzbekistan to play in the Premier League had a nightmare start and was substituted after 55 minutes, yet the records will say his first game was a win. As the new recruit struggled, the rest of the team rallied round him and then did what they needed to beat Chelsea and end another tough week with an important result.

Khusanov and Vitor Reis, on the bench, will bring the average age of an old team down but City's goalscorers were 23, 24 and 24 as they beat Chelsea 3-1. More importantly, they are all fully fluent in the language Pep Guardiola demands with Phil Foden educated in it since before the manager even arrived at the club.

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As City built their pressure to try and recover from going behind, Robert Sanchez spilled Ilkay Gundogan's shot from the edge of the box and there was Omar Marmoush to tap it home. Except he was offside, for the third time in the game, and to make matters worse he only just beat Bernardo Silva - who wasn't offside - to the tap-in.

For all the flak Silva has had this season, and for all the excitement of a new signing, it was a reminder that it is going to take time even for the experienced ones to get used to the rhythm of this team. The January recruits were never going to be an instant antidote to months of problems and they shouldn't take the burden.

The more blatant message came in the third minute when Khusanov missed his header against Nicolas Jackson and then as it bounced up only succeeded in knocking it into the path of the striker, who squared for Noni Madueke to slot into an empty net. From the restart, Khusanov gave the ball away again to Cole Palmer and then was booked scything the former City youngster down trying to rectify the situation.

Seconds later he gave the ball away again; seconds after that, he passed the ball back to Ederson and was applauded for it by some supporters in the North Stand. As starts go, it's hard to remember a more brutal welcome to the Premier League.

The spotlight is on the new signings but only because the current squad are underperforming so badly. Yes, there are injuries, but that still doesn't account for Manu Akanji being beaten so easily by balls over the top or Ederson mishitting it out of play or Mateo Kovacic putting his team into trouble so often.

City's season has gone so badly off course that Khusanov was only picked to start after just a few training sessions because two of their four centre-backs are injured and John Stones can't be backed to be fit for two games in five days so is being preferred for the must-win Champions League game against Belgian side Club Brugge. Arguably, he was only kept on because Stones hasn't managed more than 45 minutes without getting injured for more than three months.

If the start of the game was a whirling panic that should have seen City more than 1-0 down, the longer it went on the more evident it became how average Chelsea were. If this is the competition for a top-four place, the Blues should cruise into next season's Champions League.

Foden rattled a post and Josko Gvardiol fired over from eight yards in the first half before Marmoush's offside effort, and just before the break Matheus Nunes outpowered Marc Cucurella and his shot was only parried in the direction of Gvardiol to score.

The second half was anyone's for the taking, and a dreadful decision from Robert Sanchez to try and beat Haaland to a long ball from Ederson gave City the initiative. It was cool from the No.9 to hold off Levi Colwill and then dink the ball over a desperate Sanchez from outside the box.

Chelsea were not able to offer any more, and in the closing moments another long kick from Ederson was knocked on by substitute Kevin De Bruyne and then smartly turned into Foden's path by Haaland and the playmaker ran through and made the game safe. After a difficult night in Paris, City can take some more confidence into their games with Club Brugge and Arsenal next week.

Marmoush and Khusanov may have their say in the game at the Emirates (they are not eligible for the Champions League), but they should not be expected to. City have more than enough players who have been here for much longer and have to take responsibility for pulling the team back to where they want to be.

Enough of them were able to do it against Chelsea, and now they have to go again.