Enzo Fernandez returned to the pitch after a chaotic few weeks. Unfortunately for him, he could not make much of a difference. Chelsea fell again, and to make matters worse, he left the field with a cramp.
Since he returned after the friendlies with the Argentine national team, Enzo Fernandez's days at Chelsea have been filled with ups and downs and setbacks. The good news is taking its time.
First, he was met with a two-game suspension imposed by the London club for statements in which he expressed his preference to live in Madrid, which were read as a nod to Real Madrid. And on the day of his return to the pitch, a cramp in his leg led him to ask for a substitution with two minutes left.
The Argentine midfielder's exclusion coincided with the team's collapse, which extended into Saturday, culminating in a fourth consecutive loss in the Premier League. At Stamford Bridge, where a group of fans demonstrated against the club's owners (the company BlueCo) before the match, Manchester United won 1-0 and complicated Chelsea's aspirations to secure Champions League qualification spots.
A few minutes before asking for the substitution, Fernandez had already shown physical discomfort, which worsened when he sprinted into the area to go for a header. He fell beyond the end line, showed signs of pain, and immediately signaled to the bench. An encouraging sign was that he left the field on his own, jogging toward the halfway line.
Chelsea did not issue an official medical report on the injury. When asked, coach Liam Rosenior said, "I think it was his calf. I hope it was a cramp. We need him for Tuesday (against Brighton)."
After the suspension ended, Chelsea did not return the captain's armband to Enzo, which would have been his due to the absence of the injured Reece James.
In what was interpreted as another message from the club, the captain was Moises Caicedo, who during the week renewed his contract until 2033. It was a recognition of the Ecuadorian midfielder's commitment, while the relationship between the Argentine midfielder and Chelsea navigates between mistrust and messages of dubious authenticity.
Minutes before the match, Rosenior referred to Enzo as if the suspension had been imposed from outside: "We have missed everything about him: his character, his quality in controlling the ball, his drive to win. He is a huge part of the team, and it's great to have him back."
Jamie Carragher, a former Liverpool player and TV commentator in Britain, questioned the removal of the captaincy from Fernandez: "You can't just take the armband off a player like Enzo and think there won't be consequences. Leadership is about trust.
Once you start taking it away, you create uncertainty... and uncertainty destroys teams. To me, this looks like a mess. And when things start getting complicated at a club like Chelsea... they rarely end well."
With Andrey Santos on the bench, Enzo started from a deeper position, although his renowned work rate allowed him to immediately push into opposing territory as soon as the team recovered the ball. His interventions in the final third are always aggressive: he either looks for the through ball or space for a shot from distance.
Chelsea has been suffering losses in attack. Without the injured Joao Pedro — the team's top scorer in the Premier League with 14 goals — they lost winger Estevao at the 16-minute mark, who left with a muscle issue.
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