Rhino’ Agencies – Manchester City kicked off their Premier League title defence with a 2-0 victory over Chelsea on Sunday evening, in the opening round at Stamford Bridge.

Erling Haaland (18th) and Mateo Kovacic (86th) scored the goals.

Manchester City were without injured midfielder Rhodri, as well as the England trio of Kyle Walker, John Stones and Phil Foden on the bench, but that didn’t stop them from securing a valuable win.

Haaland opened the scoring in the eighteenth minute, when he took advantage of a ball that was originally intended for Silva, who touched it without control, and the Norwegian striker stepped up and put it into the net despite being harassed by the defence.

Chelsea scored in the 44th minute through Nicolas Jackson, but the video referee cancelled the goal for offside on the Senegalese striker.

City waited until the 86th minute to add a second goal through Kovacic, who cut the ball out of the middle of the field, dribbled past his marker, before firing a powerful shot from outside the youth area into the net, as the minutes ticked away.