Man City's best and worst players in 2-0 win over Chelsea | OneFootball

As expected, Manchester City kickstarted their Premier League title defence with a rather comfortable win on Sunday.

Pep Guardiola's side swept aside a Chelsea outfit in early season dire straits thanks to goals from Erling Haaland and Mateo Kovacic, making it ten wins on the spin in the Premier League in 2024.

Here's our picks for the Citizens' best and worst players in the win over Chelsea, according to our esteemed player ratings.

Bernardo Silva - 8/10

Class act / Catherine Ivill - AMA/GettyImages

Playing right up alongside Erling Haaland in the role Julian Alvarez once occupied, Bernardo Silva excelled on Sunday afternoon.

The Portugal international's deft touch to flick the ball into Haaland's path led to the opening goal of the game in the first half, and his movement off the ball thereafter proved to be a thorn in the side of Chelsea's defence throughout the 90 minutes at Stamford Bridge.

Expect Silva to have a brilliant season in this new role in Pep Guardiola's tactical setup.

Honourable mention

Mateo Kovacic - 8/10

Kovacic scored against his old side / Marc Atkins/GettyImages

Drafted in due to Rodri's absence in the heart of the Man City midfield, Mateo Kovacic proved to be a more than capable deputy on Sunday.

The 30-year-old barely put a foot wrong through the 90 minutes, completing 95% of his passes, recovering possession six times and winning eight duels.

And to top all of that off, he also scored City's crucial second goal of the game in the second half - curling wonderfully into the left corner of the net from distance.

Man City's worst player vs Chelsea

Ederson - 5/10

Not great / Catherine Ivill - AMA/GettyImages

Having had one foot out the door for most of the summer, Ederson was perhaps surprisingly favoured to Stefan Ortega for Sunday's game.

Judging by the Brazilian's nervy performance, he probably won't be favoured for much longer.

Ederson was very lucky that the offside flag was raised to spare his blushes after he'd fumbled the ball into Nicolas Jackson's path late in the first half.