{"id":227553,"date":"2026-01-04T22:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T22:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/227553\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T22:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T22:28:11","slug":"mcfarlanes-golden-moment-for-chelsea-delivers-mismatch-upset-against-guardiola-chelsea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/227553\/","title":{"rendered":"McFarlane\u2019s golden moment for Chelsea delivers mismatch upset against Guardiola | Chelsea"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 94th minute sheer ecstasy for Chelsea and Calum McFarlane when Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez forced home the equaliser. It left Pep Guardiola howling at the heavens and gave Chelsea\u2019s interim manager a golden moment. Guardiola v McFarlane could be billed as the Premier League\u2019s greatest managerial mismatch, so the memory of Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s intervention<\/a> should warm the 40-year-old in his dotage.<\/p>\n

On the home bench was the generation\u2019s pre-eminent figure, with 40 trophies on his CV for Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City<\/a>, taking charge of a 1,012th match. In the opposite technical area, a former coach at Croydon, Whyteleafe and City\u2019s academy (2020-23), who led Southampton Under-18s and arrived to make a senior managerial bow was seconded from his regular post guiding the under\u201121s and under-19s.<\/p>\n

Factor in a slew of absences headlined by Chelsea\u2019s important midfielder Mois\u00e9s Caicedo (suspended) and the goalkeeper Robert S\u00e1nchez (injured), and McFarlane\u2019s task began as mission: close-to-impossible.<\/p>\n

The first trick at City\u2019s home is not to concede early, as a rout can follow. Trevoh Chalobah heading away Rayan Cherki\u2019s inswinging corner signalled Chelsea\u2019s goal was under siege already but McFarlane\u2019s side proved spirited throughout.<\/p>\n

Rodri started for the first time since 5 October, in a quasi 3-6-1 that featured Erling Haaland at the tip, Nico O\u2019Reilly pushing high up along the left, and Josko Gvardiol, R\u00faben Dias and Matheus Nunes as the primary defence.<\/p>\n

To stymie this, McFarlane\u2019s shape was a 4-3-3 which tried to prosper on quick ball fed to the Est\u00eav\u00e3o-Jo\u00e3o Pedro-Pedro Neto frontline. Exhibit A came when Fern\u00e1ndez fed Neto, who skipped down his flank and crossed \u2013 Est\u00eav\u00e3o fumbled the attempt yet it was promising.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhirlwind\u201d was McFarlane\u2019s adjective to describe his experience since Enzo Maresca\u2019s departure<\/a> on New Year\u2019s Day presaged a promotion that is expected to end with Liam Rosenior arrival from Strasbourg, Chelsea\u2019s sister club, to take over.<\/p>\n

\u201cCombative\u201d would be apt to describe how McFarlane sent out his new charges to be. When Reece James upended Rodri, City\u2019s totem ended in a heap, and you saw the caretaker had followed Maresca\u2019s departure with zero sense of inferiority regarding being able to convince players to follow him.<\/p>\n

Another element of his blueprint was to maximise disruption. Jeers came here whenever Chelsea slowed at a dead ball or throw-in or corner \u2013 a sure sign that the hosts\u2019 rhythm was being broken up and the Guardiola plan frustrated.<\/p>\n

Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s goal provided a golden moment for Calum McFarlane. Photograph: Paul Currie\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

So Haaland hitting Filip J\u00f6rgensen\u2019s right post drew a cheer fuelled by the faithful\u2019s relief at some actual goalmouth action, and there was even greater volume when Tijjani Reijnders rifled in the opener a few minutes from the break.<\/p>\n

Guardiola celebrated by hugging from behind the fourth official, Simon Hooper having his neck encased by the Catalan\u2019s arms. This latest odd entry into the catalogue of Guardiola interactions with officials and opposition players came after an involved conversation with Hooper. Pep Lijnders, too, took part before being waved off by Hooper \u2013 all of this perhaps due to Chelsea\u2019s delaying ploys.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling good, feeling calm. We\u2019ve got some good days training in and done some good prep. The lads are in a good place and we\u2019re really looking forward to the game,\u201d McFarlane told Sky Sports, and when the sides swapped ends, he could be proud of a first 45 minutes in the big time.<\/p>\n

Neto would have transformed the emotion to joy if not spooning over a fine chance to equalise. Yet this signalled Chelsea taking the contest to City, which was underlined when Dias barged Jo\u00e3o Pedro over as the striker sought to run through and was booked.<\/p>\n

McFarlane\u2019s first move to try to wrest the match his way came when Andrey Santos replaced Est\u00eav\u00e3o for the second half. The next came on 62 minutes with Liam Delap for Jo\u00e3o Pedro and Jorrel Hato for Josh Acheampong.<\/p>\n

You saw McFarlane\u2019s thinking when Delap, also once of City, forced Gianluigi Donnarumma to make a first save at point-blank range. For a second act Delap pushed Abdukodir Khusanov into the hoardings behind the Italian\u2019s goal, a melee ensued, the striker was booked. Soon after, Dias was forced off injured.<\/p>\n

He joined Gvardiol, whom Khusanov replaced, meaning Guardiola\u2019s first-choice centre\u2011backs did not finish. City\u2019s packed January calendar means the manager will be concerned nothing serious is at play for either but overriding this is how the draw takes his side back into second, ahead of Aston Villa on goal difference only and six points behind Arsenal, with 56 to play for.<\/p>\n

Chelsea came close to equalising but Cole Palmer could not connect, with Donnarumma\u2019s goal glaring. But then came Fern\u00e1ndez beating Donnarumma to give McFarlane a famous result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the 94th minute sheer ecstasy for Chelsea and Calum McFarlane when Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez forced home the equaliser.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-227553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}