Pep Guardiola leaps to the defence of former assistant Enzo Maresca after the new Chelsea boss saw his side's defence errors gift Erling Haaland a hat-trick in a 4-2 defeat by Man City

Pep Guardiola defended the mistakes being made by Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea in pre-season by blaming their mishaps on the state of the pitches in the United States.

Chelsea lost 4-2 to Manchester City at the Ohio Stadium, all three of Erling Haaland’s goals coming after the Blues lost the ball while trying to play their way out from the back. Maresca’s men also made similar messes in their friendlies against Wrexham and Celtic.

Yet Guardiola was ready to defend his former assistant after their clash as he told reporters: 'I want to say something. It’s happened due to the pitch conditions. In normal conditions, that would not happen. At Stamford Bridge, that would not happen. That’s for sure.

‘Secondly, I saw what Enzo wants to do and I like it. I don’t make a compliment because he's my friend and helped me for the year of the treble. But I saw today many things that I know he is going to do. If you expect after two weeks, not training properly, that they are going to win the Champions League? No. I’m a big fan of him and I know he'll do well.

‘It will be more difficult for us to get a result at Stamford Bridge. Always it is difficult there. He did it at Leicester magnificently and he will do it here with an unbelievable squad. It will be a good season for him.’

Chelsea conceded twice inside five minutes, both coming after they tried to pass their way out of the back. In the second half, Haaland secured his hat-trick when the Blues yet again gave away the ball from their defensive third.

Rather than stay in Columbus, Chelsea’s squad flew to Atlanta after this friendly so they could use training facilities there. They will then move on to Charlotte where they will face Real Madrid on Tuesday.

Maresca was less inclined to use the playing surface as an excuse, though did say: ‘The pitch doesn’t help. With the way we like to play, the pitch needs to be quick but it was slowing it down.

‘We need to learn things. Probably more than the goals we conceded, we need to learn that you cannot concede one and then after two minutes another one. This is something that I just said to the players; we need to learn. When we concede one, we need to become stronger so we don't concede another one.’