“Enzo Fernandez is my player of the match. He has led by example with his quality,” pundit Alan Smith said yesterday when watching Chelsea beat Wolves 3-0 at Stamford Bridge.
Fernandez had a superb game and put in a bit of a classic all round centre midfield performance.
He finished the first half with a 100% pass completion rate, which is super impressive.
While he didn’t get an assist himself, he was the team’s key player in attack, moving the ball forward with excellent passing. He completed 60 of 62 at the final count. He had an xG of 0.22 and an xA of 0.55. He created 2 chances, with 11 passes into the final third and 78 touches. He hit 2 shots on target. All four of his long balls were accurate, which really is impressive.
Defensively, he made 8 contributions in the game.
He got named the Premier League MOTM, as mentioned above…
And he did all of that with an injury, like many of our players are doing right now.
Fernandez said after the Wolves game that he will not be going with Argentina for this international break, thankfully:
“I will not be available with Argentina, I was just talking to the medical team because I had a problem with my knee in the last 4 months.
“I came with a bone edema that got worse in the last weeks and months because we played a lot of games.
“I think the most important thing is coming to the end of the season and I think it’s good to make this decision together. Always respecting the doctors and everything.
“I’m in a lot of pain. I’ll try to recover as much as possible over these two or three weeks and be 100 per cent ready to train and play with my teammates again.”
Enzo Maresca also said after the game that Moises Caicedo is OK despite hobbling yesterday. Pedro Neto and Fernandez both asked to come off with minor groin and knee issues.
On Romeo Lavia, I did ask some sources yesterday but they’ve said it’s a case of waiting on more scan results to determine how long he will be out for. I don’t think it’s looking great though, but let’s just see what the diagnosis is.
