‘What a gem we have’, ‘unreal talent’ – Man City Fans react to youngster’s game changing performance vs Chelsea

Rico Lewis turned a number of heads with his impressive performance against Chelsea in Manchester City’s 17th Premier League game this season.

Pep Guardiola’s side were a different side in the second half as we secured a 1-0 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, much praise to Rico Lewis performance.

The 18-year-old came on for the experienced Joao Cancelo at half-time while Kyle Walker was also hooked as Guardiola recognised that his experimental formation had not worked at Stamford Bridge.

With Rodri moving back into his natural position, City effectively went from having no defensive midfielders to having two.

Lewis was involved in the goal – receiving a pass from Manu Akanji and shuttling it onto eventual goalscorer Riyad Mahrez – and his composure helped City put in a much better performance.

Pep Guardiola praised the Manchester City youngster for “changing the game” and having the biggest impact on City’s improved performance.

More importantly for the manager, the Radcliffe youngster inspired his teammates to be better versions of themselves with a talent that is extremely rare to find in a senior player never mind a rookie starting out at the top level.

Even Former Man City goalkeeper Shay Given hails the 18-year-old saying: “Lewis has a massive career ahead of him”.

Man City Fans took their time to commend him for his outstanding performance.

Here is what some fans had to say about Lewis’ performance:

@JSRFootball: “Genuinely going to be a major piece of our title charge.”

@a779457: “The best thing that’s come out of the restart is this young man’s form. Brilliant again.”

@mar33v17: “The way he wins the ball after losing it in tight spaces is absolutely wonderful to watch, what a gem we have.”

@lon_nol21: “He’s most likely to replace Kyle and the good thing is we don’t even have to spend 100 mill some other RB.”

@iam_blessed7: “Might just be our little Dani Alves!! Plays like a 30 yr old looks really mature.”

@NateMCFC144: “Guy looks unreal talent what a difference he made soon he came on.”

@PepDegree: “Cost us nothing. Kinnda insane how good he is at such young age. Academy is starting to produce few very good players.”

@MichaelC35028: “Superstar on our hands.”

@footytimmy: “He completely changed the match. His inverted role is what unlocked that Chelsea defense. And he was actually brave enough to dribble the ball into the open spaces instead of just needlessly passing it around.”