Chelsea enter Sunday\u2019s Premier League fixture with Manchester City without Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez after the club imposed an internal punishment following comments made during the international break. Fern\u00e1ndez, who delivered Chelsea\u2019s last-gasp equalizer in the reverse fixture, will be absent at Stamford Bridge and is expected to return next weekend for the match with Manchester United.<\/p>\n
The midfielder was suspended for two matches by his employers for remarks linking him to Real Madrid. Liam Rosenior insisted that Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s comments about being eager to live in Madrid amid transfer rumors had \u201ccrossed the line,\u201d revealing the player\u2019s suspension ahead of last weekend\u2019s victory in the FA Cup quarterfinal. Rosenior revealed that Fern\u00e1ndez had apologized over his comments, but that the 25-year-old would still miss City\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s response to the situation was put to the test against Port Vale, where the first-team squad produced a seven-goal win that papered over the cracks created by the absence. That result, however, will mean little against Pep Guardiola\u2019s side, who arrive on the back of recent wins over Arsenal and Liverpool and are viewed as serious title contenders. Guardiola\u2019s team will be buoyed further by Arsenal\u2019s defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The scale of Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s absence is amplified by his influence in the earlier meeting between the clubs. His ability to create and influence the final third was clear in the match when he supplied the late equalizer, a contribution Chelsea will lack on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Rosenior confirmed the disciplinary decision and set expectations for Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s availability, with the internal suspension covering the City match and expiring in time for the Manchester United fixture. Chelsea must now select and organise without one of their creative midfield options against a side with strong recent form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea will be without Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez against Manchester City after a two-match internal suspension<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,969],"tags":[1505,1304],"class_list":["post-11577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-premier-league","tag-accountability","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}