X reacts as Man City start Premier League title defence with win at Chelsea | OneFootball

Manchester City got their Premier League title defence off to a solid start as they held off a spirited but flawed Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.

The Cityzens had watched on as Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United all started with wins on the first weekend of the league season but were quickly back on the ball as goals from Erling Haaland and Mateo Kovacic helped them to victory in London.

Here's how X saw all the action unfold...

Drama is never far away at Stamford Bridge and there were loud gasps throughout the social media landscape before a ball had even been kicked.

Chelsea were always bound to leave a few significant players out of their matchday squad as City visited west London, but Raheem Sterling was not expected to be one of them.

The former Cityzen forward was denied the chance to make an impression against his old club by head coach Enzo Maresca, who omitted him from his squad altogether. Sterling's representatives admitted they are now seeking "clarity" over the situation, while Maresca claimed his decision to leave the England international out was purely a "technical" one.

It was a bad PR start to the afternoon for Chelsea but things went a little better when their clash with the Premier League champions eventually kicked off, managing to keep their opponents out for a quarter of an hour having shipped four to them in a pre-season friendly only a couple of weeks ago.

However, despite a start of relative promise, the Blues went behind as an inevitable goalscorer reminded everyone of his stature.

A ball infield was nudged on by Bernardo Silva to Haaland, who had found space between Wesley Fofana and Levi Colwill and held off arch nemesis Marc Cucurella to deftly dink in his 91st goal for City on his 100th appearance for the club.

Chelsea did manage to find holes in the City armoury and might have equalised from a penalty had Savinho been penalised for a clumsy hack on Enzo Fernandez.

The call didn't go in the hosts' favour, however, and shortly before half-time Nicolas Jackson had the home supporters cursing his lack of respect for the offside rule as his strike was ruled out.

The second half was a case of so close and yet so far for Chelsea, who huffed and puffed in the final third without managing to find the leveller to earn Maresca any points from his first official game in charge.

Instead, Pep Guardiola's outfit put the game beyond any doubt late on through a former Blue. Croatian midfielder Mateo Kovacic galloped past Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez and struck towards goal, catching Robert Sanchez unaware at the near post.

That proved to take the sting out of Chelsea's subsequent charges forward, with City holding on comfortably to secure a 2-0 win and start their Premier League title defence in successful fashion.