The understanding between the Portuguese international and England centre back has been one of the eye-catching hallmarks of City’s play over the past two months.
Along with the rest of Pep Guardiola’s side, the duo were in formidable form once again during Sunday’s superb 3-1 win at Chelsea, and only an injury time strike from Chelsea substitute Callum Hudson-Odoi prevented City from recording yet another shut-out.
For former City and England central defensive star Lescott, the huge level of trust already established between the pair has served as the perfect barometer of City’s superb all-round defensive solidity so far this term.
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And Lescott believes the understanding, togetherness and trust evident between Stones and Dias signals that their partnership will only go from strength to strength.
“The partnership with Dias and Stones, it’s getting formidable,” Lescott declared.
“That comes with games and that’s a key element to any centre-back partnership, trust
“I need to know that if I’m exposing myself for a slight second, you’ll have my back. They have that.
“You see them picking each other up and celebrating tackles like they’re a goal. We conceded but overall, that’s possibly one of the quietest games the goalkeeper has had.”
Lescott’s praise for the Stones was echoed by fellow former City central defender Nedum Onuoha, who was making his We’re Not Really Here debut.
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For his part, Onuoha pointed to an incident late in the game at Stamford Bridge after Stones had ushered a ball to Timo Werner out of play as symbolic of City’s defensive unity.
“When Dias was brought in, he was brought in for a reason, the problems that were maybe there, he’s been brought in to fix those,” Nedum asserted.
“He’s good on the ball but is a defender first. It’s great he can play and has that confidence but how rare do you see a player who is high-fiving John Stones who’s ended up in the stands for tackling Timo Werner?
“That is different, and that’s what City needed
“For the last year or so people would look at City and think they could get at them.
“But to see Dias playing that well, Stones play that well and to know Aymeric Laporte can come in there and others… teams don’t have that boost.
“This is a guy who could be a really good player for the team.”
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