Pep Guardiola took a big gamble by throwing in £92.5 million worth of new talent straight into this top four showdown.
Things threatened to return when Uzbek defender Abdukodir Khusanov made a major blunder in the third minute of his Manchester City career to give Chelsea the lead.
But at least there was a hugely encouraging debut from Egyptian striker Omar Marmoush – who played a big role in helping City into the game.
The £59million ACE has been one of the German league's standout stars this season thanks to his 20 goals – not to mention the assists.
And he has the energy to breathe new life into what has been a sputtering season for the champions.
Marmoush had some great chances and also saw a goal cleared on the outside during his 74-minute run-out.
He also showed promising signs of linking up with Erling Haaland – leading to a goal almost midway through the second half.
The only downside was a habit of running offside – but put that to rest as he tried to impress on his first run.
Fellow new arrival Khusanov will need more than an arm around his shoulder in the coming days after the way his debut started.
Fortunately for him, things didn't get much worse after that second minute as blunder gave the visitors the lead – because for a while it looked like it might.
He was shown a yellow card a few minutes later and on a few occasions he looked in danger of receiving another.
Yet there was a crucial block to deny Jadon Sancho a second goal of the night for the visitors and a sliding tackle that brought enthusiastic applause from his manager.
The first Uzbek to feature in the premium lasted until the 54th minute when Guardiola replaced him with John Stones.
The City crowd are a forgiving bunch and he received a generous round of applause as he made his way out – so that must have made him feel better.
It always looked like a big gamble of pep to pitch him in right away – after all, he only played just over 30 games of top-flight football.
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