Manchester City always have the greater share of possession during games. This has been a trend under Pep Guardiola, since he became Man City manager.

However, during the friendly game between Chelsea and Manchester City, it was Chelsea who had the greater share of possession.

Chelsea may have lost the game 4-2, but the Blues had good possession of the ball, in a game between master and student.

Speaking on that, Enzo Maresca said: “I have known City for many years and even in friendly games, they don’t concede possession to the opposition, don’t concede many chances and they have long [spells of] possession.”

To further explain his tactics against City, Enzo Maresca was asked why he deployed Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to play off the centre-left channel while maintaining width through Malo Gusto on the left in a traditional full-back position.

“Today we tried something different, instead of having the full-back inside, we maintained more or less the same structure with Malo playing higher and Kiernan going inside,” the Italian responded.

“For sure, we don’t like to lose games but in this moment, the main focus for me is to see different things and to try to be ready for the official games at the beginning of the season.

“In this moment, sometimes you need to understand a bit better when we play back, when we play inside and when to play outside.

“After two or three weeks, this is completely normal. Less the first five minutes, the game for me was good.”