Riyad Mahrez broke the deadlock for Manchester City in their Carabao Cup clash with Chelsea on Wednesday night.The early rounds of the League Cup might not always capture the imagination of football fans, but there was no denying that Chelsea's trip to the Etihad Stadium made for a tasty match-up.Nevertheless, Graham Potter must have been fearing the worst because City are pretty much experts when it comes to the Carabao Cup and his Chelsea side were wading through miserable form in the Premier League.
Man City break Chelsea's resistance
And as much as the visitors were able to hold back the onslaught until half-time, even creating a few key chances of their own, the seemingly inevitable finally arrived on 53 minutes.
But alas, it wasn't from the sort of 40-pass move that you'd expect from a Pep Guardiola side pouncing on its prey; rather a moment of individual brilliance from Mr. Mahrez himself.
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That's because the former Leicester City star showed fantastic skill and accuracy to beat Édouard Mendy's resistance by scoring a ruthless free-kick that almost looked too close to convert.
It is, after all, no secret that even some of the very best free-kick takers in the business can struggle when close proximity to the penalty area leaves little in the way of time to get the ball up and over the wall.
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Chelsea's terrible wall gives a helping hand
However, replays quickly revealed that Mahrez was given somewhat of a helping hand in his quest to find the back of the net in the form of a pretty shambolic wall from Chelsea.
And in particular, the role of Kalidou Koulibaly had supporters pulling their hair out with the summer signing seemingly refusing to jump despite the ball whizzing almost directly above his head and duly past Mendy.
You couldn't help watching the slow-motion footage of Koulibaly not following the lead of his teammates, pretty much costing Chelsea the lead as a direct consequence, without putting your head in your hands.
It made for a cringe-worthy moment that Koulibaly won't be in a hurry to watch back, so be sure to check out why so many Chelsea fans were angry with him for yourselves down below:
Video: Koulibaly's embarrassing role in Man City opener
Fan reaction
Oh Kalidou, what were you thinking?!
We can only hope that there was some sort of set-piece strategy put together at Cobham that required Koulibaly to keep his feet on the ground, but even if that's the case, it clearly needs some work.
After all, it just goes to show that regardless of whether or not City were edging back into the game that it's sometimes tiny details like that which can settle games.
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How did Koulibaly play overall?
And sadly, Koulibaly wasn't just receiving criticism for his role in Chelsea's wall because there were also wide-spread digs aimed in his direction regarding his overall performance.
Having arrived with Napoli as one of the best centre-backs in the world, the 31-year-old has yet to show the Stamford Bridge faithful that sort of form in more than just fits and starts since his arrival.
Even the best players take time to adjust to English football, it must be said, but Chelsea fans can't help huffing and puffing when they see costly moments like his statuesque defending in the wall.
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