The champions are off to a perfect start after goals from Erling Haaland and Mateo Kovacic earned them an opening day victory at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea played comparitively well but failed to capitalize on their chances.
The Blues captain midfielder Enzo Fernandez put out a poor performance on sunday according to some pundits. His positioning in the number 10 role was bad and couldn’t make any impact in the offensive aswell as deffensive parts of the game. Former Manchester United and England defender Garry Neville was among the pudits who gave lashing reviews on the Argentine’s performance.
AS THE MATCH WENT
Chelsea took on reigning champions Manchester City in their season opener at the Stamford Bridge on Sunday. For the most part of the match both teams were equally competive but utilization of the chances was the difference. Precicely saying the quality in the final third was lacking for the home team. With the likes of Nkunku, Palmer, Jackson and Enzo in attack they coudn’t carve enough clear cut chances. And when they produced they couldn’t finish. Nicolas Jackson ran offside on a couple of occassions. When Nkunku got the ball in the right wing he was blocked by teenager Rico Lewis who was brilliant on the day. On the other hand Man City weren’t at their best but capilized on their chances. For the first goal Haaland fended of two Chelsea defenders and made his half chance count. Again for the second goal former Chelsea player Mateo Kovacic dribbled past Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo to score from outside the box. The irony in this was, the player Chelsea sold for 25 million pounds dribbled past two players on whome they spent a total of 210 million pounds.
THE CASE OF ENZO FERNANDEZ
Enzo Fernandez was named captain of Chelsea for the match. This already had raised some eyebrows. After the controversies in the summer which involved Enzo and the whole Argentine team singing racist slurs through a social media platform. There was no punishment, there was no bans, there was no offcial appology. He posted an apology on his instagram page. The tension in the Chelsea dressing room was unimaginable.
Some fans reacted through their social media platforms mocking Chelsea and Premier League for their decision.
Premier League banned Cavani for 3 games. Enzo Fernandez captaining Chelsea today. Premier League is a joke
Chelsea taking the knee with Enzo Fernandez as captain after singing that racist song on video during the summer? After so much important work by the club in recent years, lip service doesn’t begin to sum up their current “commitment” to anti-racism.
So that was already there in the air. A poor performance along with that forced even more backlash from the supporters. Enzo played in a new role for this game. Everyone expected him to partner Caicedo in the holding midfield but maresca chose to assign him the number 10 role. He has played the attacking midfeild role in the past, during his time in Argentina. But for Chelsea, Benfica and Argentina he played as a holding midfielder. So that was the role everyone expected him to play. And Palmer was the one who played the playmaker role. This time we only saw a shadow of Cole Palmer while he was playing on the wing. Enzo missed the one on one duels, couldn’t make a forward impact. The GOAL.com rated him a 4/10. Which was equal to the worst rating for a Chelsea player during the match.
WHAT THE PUNDITS SAID?
Gary Neville and former Chelsea winger Paul Nevin were among the most harshest critiques of Enzo Fernandez. Neville was on commentary duty for the Sky Sports when he threw caustic review of the 23 year old’s performance.
‘Enzo Fernandez presses when he can’t win it a lot. ‘He then throws up his arms to his team-mates as if to say “where were you?”. He is not kidding anyone.’ said the former Man Utd defender.
Paul Nevin was critical of being quiet during the game and then went on to compare him with the Chelsea outcast Conor Gallegher.
“Enzo has been very, very quiet in that number 10 position. You have to be central to everything in that position. If you’re Conor Gallagher you’d be thinking you can do better than that.”
Anyway The Blues boss Maresca backed the Argentine during the postmatch PC by saying.
“All of us make mistakes. It’s important to recognise Enzo did a mistake, recognised the mistake and it’s finished”
Chelsea next play against Swiss Super League side Servette in the UEFA Europa Conference League play off first leg. Enzo and Chelsea would like to kick start their European season in a positive note.
