Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez rescued a point for Chelsea with an injury-time equaliser at the Etihad Stadium in the club\u2019s first match since parting company with Enzo Maresca on New Year\u2019s Day. Fern\u00e1ndez sneaked in at the far post from a defensive lapse to make it 1\u20131 and keep Chelsea\u2019s top-four hope alive, though the Blues have managed only one win in their last eight Premier League matches.<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola\u2019s side controlled large portions of the game from the start. City were particularly dangerous through Tijjani Reijnders and Rodri, with Reijnders scoring in the 42nd minute after pouncing on a loose ball, shifting past Beno\u00eet Badiashile and lashing a shot into the roof of the net past Filip J\u00f6rgensen, who was standing in for the injured Robert S\u00e1nchez. City\u2019s persistence and possession dominance left Chelsea on the back foot for long periods.<\/p>\n
Chelsea improved after the interval and created openings through quick counters, though Pedro Neto missed two early second-half chances. A crucial last-ditch tackle from substitute Jorrel Hato prevented City from doubling their lead, and Liam Delap saw a close-range effort saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma. In second-half injury time Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez capitalised on a defensive slip to level the score.<\/p>\n
The result will please Arsenal, who are now six points clear at the top after City failed to close the gap. The game also underlined wider concerns at Chelsea: without a permanent manager, inconsistent form and dwindling returns are increasing pressure on the club\u2019s owners, whose billion-pound spending spree is proving increasingly fruitless.<\/p>\n
Chelsea player ratings (out of 10)
\nGK: Filip J\u00f6rgensen\u20146.9
\nRB: Josh Acheampong\u20146.1
\nCB: Trevoh Chalobah\u20146.8
\nCB: Beno\u00eet Badiashile\u20146.6
\nLB: Malo Gusto\u20147.1
\nCM: Reece James\u20146.9
\nCM: Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez\u20148.3
\nRW: Est\u00eav\u00e3o\u20145.9
\nAM: Cole Palmer\u20146.2
\nLW: Pedro Neto\u20146.3
\nST: Jo\u00e3o Pedro\u20146.4<\/p>\n
Substitutes: Andrey Santos (46′ for Est\u00eav\u00e3o) 6.7; Delap (62′ for Jo\u00e3o Pedro) 5.9; Hato (62′ for Josh Acheampong) 6.6. Subs not used: Gabriel Slonina (GK), Max Merrick (GK), Tosin Adarabioyo, Alejandro Garnacho, Jamie Gittens, Marc Guiu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez’s injury-time equaliser preserved a point for Chelsea and kept top-four hopes alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,969],"tags":[944,1089,1087],"class_list":["post-5718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-premier-league","tag-andrey-santos","tag-chelsea-struggles","tag-coaching-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5718","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=5718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}