Enzo Fernandez's injury-time equaliser may well prove extremely costly for the Premier League title contenders, with Manchester City now six points behind league leaders Arsenal
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola reacts to conceding late on against Chelsea
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola reacts to conceding late on against Chelsea
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Pep Guardiola is facing an injury and personnel crisis after Manchester City's title challenge suffered a bitter blow at the Etihad.
Following Enzo Maresca’s departure, Calum McFarlane took charge of Chelsea for one game - Liam Rosenior’s appointment is imminent - and the interim boss masterminded a second half comeback, with Enzo Fernandez scoring an equaliser deep into added time. And to add to Guardiola’s disappointment, the City manager saw his two starting centre-halves go off injured during a game his side led through a Tijjani Reijnders strike in the first half.
“It does not look good for Josko (Gvardiol) or Ruben (Dias) - I think they will be on the sidelines for a few weeks,” said Guardiola. “Of course I have concerns. You saw the bench today - we had three players from the academy. Now, we will have more. But we will stay strong and we will find a solution. The spirit is there.”
For McFarlane, it was a magical end to what could well be his one and only game as a Premier League manager.
He said: “For me, it was amazing, stuff you dream about. Pep Guardiola, Premier League game, amazing. But it should be about the players, and how well they performed. It shouldn't be about me, it should be about the quality performance those lads put on with everything that has gone on.”
Rosenior will meet with Chelsea executives on Monday and is expected to be in charge of the game at Fulham on Wednesday. On the same night, Brighton are at City, who now trail Arsenal by six points at the top of the table.
But Guardiola - who was already without the likes of John Stones, Mateo Kovacevic, Nico Gonzalez, Savinho and the players on Afcon duty - thought the performance against Chelsea was ‘fantastic’.
He said: “We missed chances in the second half, four or five actions of two versus one or three versus two. Our talented players tried to finish the game but we could not do that.
“But it is what it is. We played a fantastic game against a top team and unfortunately we could not take all the points.”
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