Manchester City got their 2024/25 Premier League season off to a strong start at the weekend with a 2-0 away win against Chelsea.
After beating Manchester United on penalties to win the Community Shield, the champions of England grabbed three points in their first league match of the new campaign.
Erling Haaland opened the scoring in the first half against Enzo Maresca’s side before Mateo Kovacic doubled City’s lead to secure the victory in West London.
Following this opening victory of the new league season, a pundit couldn’t help but share his praise for one specific figure in Pep Guardiola’s side who played a big role in this game.
Darren Bent praises Ruben Dias after Man City’s win over Chelsea
While going through his Team of the Week picks from the first weekend of Premier League fixtures, Darren Bent said this on talkSPORT (20/8 16:36) about one of his defensive options.
He said: “I’ve gone Ruben Dias. He’s just so comfortable in possession, strong, he reads the game really, really well.”
Dias set the benchmark in Chelsea win
Earlier this month, Oscar Bobb named Dias as the best trainer at City, which has clearly been proved by this latest performance.
To highlight Bent’s point about how comfortable Dias is in possession, the defender accurately completed 69 of the 71 passes he attempted against Chelsea, giving him a passing accuracy percentage of 97%, higher than any of his City teammates.
In addition to that, the 27-year-old made two clearances, two interceptions and one tackle to showcase his impressive ability off the ball as well as on it.
For the icing on the cake, Dias won all three duels he was involved in as well as not getting dribbled past on even one occasion and even managed to get through the game without giving a foul away.
Taking all of that on board, it shouldn’t surprise any City fans that Bent included the centre-back in his Team of the Week.
