Enzo Fernandez scored Chelsea’s winning goal against Man City last night, and that’s what will be remembered from the game.
But his performance was about more than that, and the stats show it.
Enzo shows what he can do – but how will Rosenior use him?
Enzo Fernandez knee slides after putting Chelsea ahead.
Enzo Fernandez knee slides after putting Chelsea ahead.
Fernandez ended up with an 8.3 rating on stats site FotMob, the highest in the game. His superb defensive efforts were the heart of that. He made 7 tackles, the joint most in the game. The next highest Chelsea player had 3.
His 7 duels won were the most for Chelsea, and his 16 defensive contributions joint most of anyone in the game. His passing was solid, even with his team sitting very deep under pressure for most of the game. He had 0.36 expected assists, the most of anyone in the game.
Then his goal was the icing on the cake. He almost messed it up, needing 3 attempts (with the third coming almost coming back off the post), but he got himself into the right position to sniff out the crucial goal as he so often does and it paid off.
It will be very interesting to see how Liam Rosenior uses him – will the double pivot with Moises Caicedo continue? With Cole Palmer ahead? Or will the new coach favour his old Strasbourg favourite Andrey Santos (who also had a good game after coming on), forcing Enzo forward and Palmer out wide?
In other news…
The removal of Joao Pedro for Liam Delap was a turning point for Chelsea in some ways, with the striker’s runs in behind threatening City far more. That’s bad news for the Brazilian.
Rosenior’s big challenge will be getting Cole Palmer back to his best, as was pointed out by Matt Law in his piece for the Daily Telegraph today.
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