For all intents and purposes, Pep Guardiola’s tenure at Manchester City looks to be in its final stage. A strange spell where despite winning 14 trophies including six Premier League titles and a Champions League (and counting!) in ten seasons (and maybe counting), it feels as if more could be done by him and his always stellar squad.
Said incompleteness is not as strange as not seeing Guardiola shaking hands with Enzo Maresca, who was himself purported as his successor in the City job and in style, before kick-off. The eeriness is still nearly there.
If the world weren’t expecting Chelsea to do anything but fold against a City team they haven’t beat since that fateful night in Porto, we were holding onto hope the Blues would pull a win when least anticipated. That hope was put to bed when Estêvão’s shot was blocked by Josko Gvardiol, and ensued a barrage of City chances that ended with the seeming inevitability of a goal for the hosts.
Estêvão was pulled in half-time for Andrey Santos, who brought a helping hand for Reece James and Enzo Fernández in midfield. The vice-captain followed suit by providing Pedro Neto the golden chance to equalise right after the second half kick-off, which the Portuguese attacker duly botched.
Hence Enzo needed to take matters into his own hands. That he did in the very last minutes of the match, despite Gianluigi Donnarumma’s best efforts.
* Filip Jorgensen starts between the posts, and Gabriel Slonina is on the bench.
* Reece James is good. But Moisés Caicedo might be too big of a shoe to fill.
* Can we get a proper no.9? This “9.5” experiment is tiresome.
* What a performance from Enzo Fernández. Like him or not, he’s one of the few in the squad with that “old guard” vibe we desperately need back.
* Next up: Fulham away in the Premier League.
* KTBFFH.
See More:
* [Chelsea FC: Premier League](/premier-league)