Manchester City secured their first Premier League win of the new season at the weekend with a 2-0 victory against Chelsea.
After drawing 4-4 against the West London club at Stamford Bridge last season, Pep Guardiola’s side walked away with a 2-0 scoreline this time around in their first league match of the new campaign.
With three points now on the board from their first attempt, a pundit has now pinpointed one particular City player for some significant praise after seeing him deliver a top performance against Enzo Maresca’s outfit.
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Alan Shearer praises Mateo Kovacic after Man City’s Chelsea victory
In his Team of the Week shared on the official Premier League website, Alan Shearer had this to say about what he saw from Mateo Kovacic in Sunday’s victory.
He said: “Bossed the midfield against former club Chelsea and finished an excellent afternoon with a wonderful goal.”
Kovacic was impressive against Chelsea
Shearer wasn’t the only former top-flight striker to praise the 30-year-old after his last performance as Jermain Defoe said that Kovacic has raised his game after one season at City under Guardiola.
After completing the full 90 minutes in City’s Community Shield win over Manchester United, the midfielder did the same thing against Chelsea.
In addition to scoring the second goal of the game against his old side, as Shearer mentioned, Kovacic showed in other areas how impressive he was on the day.
For example, with 87 touches of the ball in total, the Croatian managed to successfully complete 63 of the 66 passes he attempted.
This gave him an overall passing accuracy percentage of 95%, the joint-second-highest in the City team.
Kovacic also made more tackles (6) than any other City player on the day, which further highlights why Shearer was so impressed with him at the weekend.
