It threatened to back-fire when Uzbek defender Abdukodir Khusanov made a major blunder in the third minute of his Manchester City career to gift Chelsea the lead.
But at least there was a hugely encouraging debut from Egyptian forward Omar Marmoush – who played a big part in helping City back into the game.
Marmoush had a couple of great chances and also saw a goal chalked off for offside during his 74 minute run-out.
Thankfully for him it didn’t get notably worse after that second minute blunder that gifted the visitors the lead - because for a while it looked like it might do.
Fellow new arrival Khusanov will need more than an arm round his shoulder over the next few days after the way his debut started.
