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Sports Illustrated

Sport

Jamie Spencer

Man City Player Ratings vs. Chelsea: Cityzens Pay for Lack of Ruthlessness

Chelsea Enzo Fernández Erling Haaland Tijjani Reijnders Pedro Neto Estêvão Filip Jörgensen [ Josko ] Gvardiol Manchester City Abdukodir Khusanov

Manchester City were pegged back by a 94th minute equaliser from Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernández in a 1–1 Premier League draw at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

City led for more than half of the game but failed to make the most of what was, overall, a dominant performance. Tijjani Reijnders scored the breakthrough goal shortly before the interval, but Erling Haaland also struck the post and other chances weren’t taken.

Chelsea improved significantly after half-time and began to create chances of their own, eventually rewarded for that persistence when Fernández equalised deep into stoppage time.

Combined with Arsenal’s win over Bournemouth on Saturday, it leaves City six points behind the league leading-Gunners as the season passes the halfway stage.

Worrying for Pep Guardiola will also be the loss of both starting centre backs—Rúben Dias and Joško Gvardiol—to apparent injuries in the second half of the game.

Man City Player Ratings vs. Chelsea (4-3-2-1)

Erling Haaland went close but could not score this time. | Marc Atkins/Getty Images

*Player ratings provided by Fotmob*

GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma—7.9: Not really seen until Chelsea had their first shot on target with 20 minutes left, pulling out a relatively straightforward but important stop. Almost kept out the equaliser.

RB: Matheus Nunes—7.4: Pedro Neto got into good positions a few times on that side without doing the damage he could have. The converted City right back might think he could have done more to cut out the cross before it reached Fernández.

CB: Rúben Dias—7.3: Unable to complete the game after picking up a knock late on.

CB: Joško Gvardiol—6.9: Withdrawn only a few minutes after half-time with what appeared an ankle problem.

LB: Nico O’Reilly—7.3: It could have been a challenging afternoon up against Estêvão, but he won that individual battle and the Brazilian did not re-emerge after the break.

CM: Bernardo Silva (c)—6.4: Led by example but a limited performance in terms of his own output.

CM: Rodri—8.3: Back in the starting XI for the first time since October. A very controlled performance, despite a lack of minutes this season, and a reminder of his immense class.

CM: Tijjani Reijnders—7.7: Continued his excellent scoring run. It was by far an easy chance and he was rewarded for a willingness to make a burst forward off the ball.

RF: Rayan Cherki—6.6: A source of potential danger from the early stages onwards and the overall architect of the breakthrough goal. Lacked a consistent end product.

LF: Phil Foden—6.6: Started brightly until seeming to fade after half-time. Most dangerous in the opening 45 minutes.

ST: Erling Haaland—7.2: A quiet start to the game but started testing Chelsea seriously towards the end of the first half. Struck the inside of the post.

Substitute	Rating (Out of 10)
Abdukodir Khusanov (51’ for Gvardiol)	6.6
Jérémy Doku (70’ for Reijnders)	6.7
Nathan Aké (81’ for Dias)	N/A

Subs not used: James Trafford (GK), Rico Lewis, Stephen Mfuni, Divine Mukasa, Ryan McAidoo, Reigan Heskey.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1)

Starting XI: Filip Jörgensen; Josh Acheampong, Trevoh Chalobah, Benoît Badiashile, Malo Gusto; Reece James (c), Enzo Fernández; Estêvão, Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto; João Pedro.

Subs used: Andrey Santos, Jorrel Hato, Liam Delap.

Player of the Match: Rodri (Man City)

Man City 1–1 Chelsea—How It Unfolded at Etihad Stadium

Tijjani Reijnders fired Man City ahead. | Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside/Getty Images

City immediately began to dominate the ball, but it was soon clear that Chelsea would make it tough for the hosts to find a way through. It meant that early chances were hard to come by—for either side—as the final pass just missed its mark or situations were well defended.

There was no shot of any kind for 20 minutes, at which point the first attempt and real opportunity went the way of Chelsea on the break. The ball eventually made its way to Estêvão, whose first-time shot was expertly blocked by Joško Gvardiol. Almost immediately at the other end, Phil Foden cut inside and fired narrowly the wrong side of the post from near the penalty spot.

Erling Haaland was being kept on the periphery of the game through the opening quarter, marshalled by the Chelsea defence—one such instance saw Benoît Badiashile got close enough to put the towering Norwegian under pressure as he rose to meet a dangerous cross.

But as Chelsea tried to absorb the growing waves of City attacks, that resistance broke. There were warning signs. Haaland began to emerge more and a deflected shot was only denied by the fingertips of stand-in Chelsea goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen, before City’s No. 9 then rattled the inside of the post.

When Reijnders broke the deadlock in some style, the original Rayan Cherki pass from deep was intended for Haaland. But the ball broke instead to Reijnders, who nudged it onto his left side and rifled a powerful strike between Jörgensen and the near post.

Probably shouldn't call it his 'weak' foot 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/lTqNx9mv43
— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 4, 2026

Chelsea made a brighter start to the second half and City breathed a sigh of relief when Pedro Neto failed to make the most of two opportunities to draw his team level, the second a poor miss over the top from close-range after a glorious pirouette from Fernández set up the chance. Another in for Neto went begging just past the hour mark when it looked like Chelsea had an overload.

It wasn’t the case that City were under the cosh, but Chelsea attacks continued to test them. Substitute Liam Delap managed to roll into position for a shot, requiring an important save from Gianluigi Donnarumma, after Abdukodir Khusanov’s partial block had managed to take the sting off.

Eventually, Chelsea’s improvement after the break and City’s failure to make the most of their dominance proved costly. Deep into stoppage time, Malo Gusto’s cross from the right wasn’t dealt with by Nathan Aké or Matheus Nunes, with Fernández in place at the far post. The first close-range effort was saved by Donnarumma, but the rebound fell straight back to the Chelsea midfielder and a swipe of his right boot was enough to nudge the ball across the line.