Paul Merson criticizes Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez ban after City loss
Chelsea’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday was damaging enough. What has really stung, though, is the sense they helped engineer their own downfall.
They went toe-to-toe with Pep Guardiola’s side in the first half, matched the tempo, and reached the interval level. There was shape, discipline, even a bit of belief. Then City clicked up a gear after the break and Chelsea simply fell apart.
The midfield, in particular, disintegrated. Moises Caicedo and Andrey Santos were overrun, unable to get Chelsea up the pitch or take the sting out of City’s relentless pressure. Every turnover felt like an invitation for another wave of sky-blue attacks.
And all the while, their best passer watched from the stands.
Merson: “Crazy at the highest level”
Enzo Fernandez’s absence was not down to injury or suspension from the authorities. It was self‑inflicted. Chelsea banned the World Cup winner for two matches after interviews the club did not like, and Paul Merson did not hold back on the decision.
Writing in his Sky Sports column, the former Arsenal midfielder was scathing.
“Why in your brain of brains would you ban Enzo Fernandez for two games? He’s your best passer of the ball, the one who can create, and you chop your nose off to spite your face,” Merson said.
“And it’s not the FA banning him, it’s the club. It’s crazy at the highest level. They were crying out for him yesterday; they couldn’t get out.”
Chelsea’s inability to “get out” was exactly the story of that second half. Without Fernandez’s range of passing and calm in tight areas, the build-up became panicked. Caicedo and Santos worked, chased, tried to plug gaps, but they never looked like players who could dictate a big game away to City.
The pressure finally told. Once City found their rhythm, Chelsea had no one in midfield to slow the game down or pick the right pass to relieve the siege. The scoreline, in the end, reflected that imbalance.
Neville’s contrasting criticism
Merson is not alone in focusing on Fernandez, but Gary Neville has taken a very different line.
The former Manchester United defender has been more critical of the Argentine, grouping him with Marc Cucurella as players who, in his view, will carry responsibility if Chelsea fail to qualify for the Champions League. Both have spoken publicly in ways that have irritated the club hierarchy, with Cucurella especially pointed in his criticism.
Where Merson sees Chelsea sabotaging themselves by sidelining a key creator, Neville sees senior players whose words and performances have not matched the club’s ambitions. The tension between those two readings sums up the chaos around Stamford Bridge this season: is the problem the squad, or the decisions made above it?
On Sunday, though, the immediate issue was obvious. Chelsea lacked quality on the ball in the very area of the pitch where City are ruthless.
Punishment that hurt the team
Chelsea had options in how to handle Fernandez’s situation. A heavy fine, a warning, even leaving him out of an FA Cup quarter-final would have sent a clear message. Instead, the club and head coach Liam Rosenior went further, imposing a two-game ban that took him out of one of their toughest league fixtures of the season.
The timing could hardly have been worse. Against a City side that press as aggressively and as intelligently as any team in Europe, Chelsea removed the one midfielder most comfortable threading passes through that pressure.
They paid for it. The team struggled to construct meaningful attacks with Caicedo and Santos in the engine room, especially once City seized control after the break. Every clearance came straight back. Every attempted counter broke down before it reached the front line.
In that context, the decision to ban Fernandez felt less like discipline and more like self-sabotage.
There is, of course, a limit to how much difference one player can make when City hit full stride. With the way Guardiola’s side played in that second half, even a prime Lionel Messi might have struggled to change the outcome.
But that is not really the point. At this level, clubs search obsessively for marginal gains. Chelsea chose a marginal loss.
United defeat keeps door ajar
The one sliver of encouragement for Chelsea arrived a day later. Manchester United, the side they are chasing in the league, lost to Leeds United on Monday. The table still offers a route back into the Champions League race.
Beat United this weekend and the gap shrinks to four points. Suddenly the picture looks different, the pressure flips, and the narrative softens.
That is the opportunity in front of them. The question is whether Chelsea will keep making life harder for themselves before the whistle even blows.
