What Pep Guardiola was thinking with Abdukodir Khusanov call and telling change amid Chelsea tactic

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. 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."

There was criticism from the Sky Sports pundits, too, with Jamie Redknapp saying Guardiola had made a mistake in playing Khusanov in such a difficult game against an opposition like Chelsea.

But Guardiola defended his player, and denied that he considered replacing him in the first half to take him out of the firing line. However, his 54th minute substitution was telling, but Guardiola said Khusanov's yellow card was the main factor behind the change - rather than Stones' availability on the bench.

"In this kind of situation, there's nothing much to say," Guardiola said of Khusanov. "They know he makes it [a mistake]. He knows he make a mistake. He doesn't [not] know it. What can I say? 'Don't do a mistake?'

"He doesn't want to do it, so we know that. The reaction from the manager was amazing, the whole staff, and especially,