Chelsea put in an impressive display at the Etihad Stadium against Manchester City in 1-1 draw last weekend
Mauricio Pochettino gave a cryptic reply when asked about why Enzo Fernandez was benched in the 2-0 win over Sheffield United yesterday.
It has been confirmed that the World Cup winning midfielder is currently dealing with a muscular injury. However, since his signing, he has been more or less a first team regular, coming off the bench only occasionally.
The Argentine midfielder is always on the team sheet, but yesterday he was on the bench and made a cameo in the 69th minute, replacing Mykhaylo Mudryk.
The Blues had a frustrating evening against Sheffield in the first half and struggled to find answers to the midtable team’s questions. However, in the second half, it was a different Cheltenham when Pochettino made some tactical modifications that saw the Blues exploit Sheffield.
Cole Palmer once again showed why we signed him, as he finally opened the scoring in the 47th minute. Chelsea remained on the same intensity and deservingly got their second goal when Nicolas Jackson tapped the ball seven minutes later.
But the main questions raised about why Fernandez was benched against a side that sits deep were, (h/t Metro), Pochettino revealed why:
“It’s a big competition, and sometimes you need one characteristic, one profile, or another profile, and you need to choose the player. And of course, today we saw that the combination between Caicedo and Gallagher, plus Cole Palmer, like a number 10, was a possibility to be the best combination for today.”
It’s possible that he wants to give Fernandez some rest because the Argentine has been a consistent starter for us and needs time off to prevent more injuries. However, giving him a rest might have backfired because the former Benfica midfielder is proficient at finding gaps against teams that deploy dee blocks, and the game looked tight in the first half.
However, everything turned around, and we took advantage of fantastic opportunities to secure a statement win. Given that the midweek matchup is an EFL Cup quarterfinal and the Blues are aiming to advance to the semifinal, resting Fernandez was a good decision.
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