Man City 1-1 Chelsea: Enzo's late equaliser dents hosts' title hopes
When Liam Rosenior takes over at Chelsea this week, he will inherit a club that sits 17 points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal and is level-pegging with Manchester United in a struggle for the last place in the top five that is a contest between two of the three most dysfunctional clubs in the division. The other is West Ham. The top five does not concern them.When Rosenior surveys his new charges, he will see a team good enough to hold its own against Manchester City at The Etihad on Sunday evening and snatch a late, late draw that left Pep Guardiola’s side six points behind Arsenal at the top of the table.Everyone seems to be obsessing with when Arsenal will crack but City are doing a decent imitation of a team that is blinking first.When Rosenior arrives, he will see a team with players like Enzo Fernandez, who was the best player on the pitch against City and scored the equaliser deep into injury time after superb work by Malo Gusto on the right flank. This Chelsea team does not have many leaders but Fernandez fits that description.He will discover a club marshalled superbly by U21 coach Calum McFarlane in his caretaker role, a coach who will be able to say he was the equal of Guardiola on his first venture to a Premier League touchline. Enzo Fernandez netted a late equaliser to hand managerless Chelsea a 1-1 draw at Man City Chelsea put in a spirited second-half display ahead of Liam Rosenior's expected arrivalHe will find a team still coming to terms with the departure of Enzo Maresca in the wake of the departure last week, a man who left soon after getting ideas above his station. That is a condition that is a fatal flaw for Chelsea coaches.He will find a team entitled to call itself World Champions but which, if it loses to Fulham in his first game in charge, at Craven Cottage, on Wednesday, may also be entitled to call itself the third best team in West London by the middle of the week.He will inherit a club that emasculates its coach by placing him at the mercy of an army of sporting directors and power-crazed co-owners. He will inherit a club with an upside-down hierarchy that places the coach somewhere near the bottom of it and challenges old assumption that the coach runs the team.It appears to be only a matter of time until Rosenior, currently the coach of Chelsea’s sister club, Strasbourg – ‘feeder club’ would be more appropriate - is appointed Maresca’s replacement.Rosenior is a fine coach. He has done the hard yards away from the elite divisions. He is a bright, clever man who is confident without being cocky and is renowned for being tactically astute. He is ready for a step up.How Rosenior copes with the interference that will come from above – the squad of sporting directors marching across the pitch to the dressing room at full time, the phone calls from the co-owner, the signings that will not be his – will define whether he thrives or not.So this game was an interregnum for Chelsea. A game in a vacuum. A game marshalled by McFarlane and his staff. However highly-rated they are, their inexperience at this level made it feel slightly as if City were welcoming Prescot Cables for an FA Cup third round tie.Chelsea were depleted, too. No Robert Sanchez, no Marc Cucurella, no Levi Colwill, no Wesley Fofana, no Moises Caicedo. Not that many would notice. Chelsea are a trading post as much as a football club these days. The squad is so bloated and so transient that many struggle to discern any identity in the team any more. Caretake boss Calum McFarlane celebrates wildly as Fernandez earns Chelsea a late point
Make your 7 picks by 12.30pm every Saturday to win £1,000*Manchester UnitedManchester City*18+, excludes NI. Terms and conditions apply Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola's side fell further behind Arsenal in the Premier League title raceMost of those players wandered on to the pitch before the match to help supervise the pre-match training drills. It added to the impression there were more coaches out there than players. It made, frankly, for rather a bizarre sight.But if City thought they were in for something of a stroll as they looked to resume their pursuit of Arsenal, they were mistaken. Chelsea may have been without a coach but they did not play like it. They played as if they were liberated. They fought and fought from the first minute to the last.They looked well-prepared. And if the first 20 minutes were stultifying, Chelsea made the first chance when Pedro Neto raced down the left and cut a ball back for Estevao Willian. He got his shot away but was denied by a fine block from Josko Gvardiol.A minute later, City broke free of their torpor, too. A brilliant long ball by Matheus Nunes played Tijjani Reijnders in on the left of Chelsea’s defence and he drilled a crossfield ball to Phil Foden. Foden checked inside on to his left foot but pulled his shot wide.The crowd began to grow restless as Chelsea took their time on restarts and their own team struggled to make any inroads into the visitors’ defence. Bernardo Silva twisted Malo Gusto one way then the other but Gusto stuck to his task and Bernardo lifted his shot too high.There was another flurry of excitement seven minutes before the break when an Erling Haaland shot deflected off the heel of Trevoh Chalobah and was clawed away by Filip Jorgensen. A minute after that, Haaland curled a brilliant shot beyond Jorgensen’s dive but this time, it rebounded off the inside of the post to safety.By now, it felt as if a City goal was imminent. It was. Four minutes before the break, the ball broke to Reijnders on the edge of the Chelsea box. He sidestepped an attempt at a tackle by Benoit Badiashile, made a yard of space and rifled a left-foot drive high into the roof of the net past Jorgensen.Chelsea were disconsolate. They had worked incredibly hard, only to be undone in the final few minutes of the half. None had worked harder than Enzo Fernandez and within two minutes of the restart, he had set up a golden chance for an equaliser. Tijjani Reijnders (right) fired City in front but the hosts were not able to put the game to bedFernandez challenged for a loose ball in the City box, spun brilliantly and laid the ball into the path of Neto. Neto was faced with little more than a tap-in. He lifted his shot over the bar.Liam Delap made a difference when he was introduced for Joao Pedro after 62 minutes and brought a decent save out of Gianluigi Donnarumma when he thudded a shot into his midriff.Delap also picked up his customary disciplinary infraction – and nearly started a brawl – when he shoved Abdukodir Khusanov into the advertising hoardings where he lay spreadeagled as the players of both teams shoved and pushed each other. Delap was shown a yellow card.It had begun to look as if Chelsea would not get the reward they deserved but then Gusto broke free down the right and speared a cross into the six-yard box. It fell to Fernandez. Donnarumma saved his first effort but not his second.Chelsea celebrated wildly in front of their fans. Rosenior may be inheriting a complicated situation and a dysfunctional club but if he can get his players to reproduce this performance, the future might yet be bright.
