\n<\/p>\n
Central to it all was match-winner Fernandez, the game’s outstanding performer. The Argentine’s first half-header, planted firmly past Lucas Perri after 23 minutes, turning out to be the decisive moment.<\/p>\n
It ended a run of 498 minutes without a Chelsea goal against Premier League clubs in all competitions. Victory was secured with their first clean sheet against top-flight opposition since 17 January.<\/p>\n
This was the same Fernandez recently given a two-match suspension by Chelsea after Rosenior said he had “crossed a line” following their Champions League exit against Paris St-Germain by giving an interview hinting at a departure.<\/p>\n
The assumption was that he was fluttering his eyelashes at Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
At Wembley, what should be normal service for the World Cup winner was resumed. Fernandez was the inspiration behind Chelsea’s win, not just with his goal but all-round effort.<\/p>\n
He took his goal tally this season to 13. The only midfielder to score more for a Premier League club in 2025-26 is Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White with 16.<\/p>\n
Former England goalkeeper Rob Green, who had a spell at Stamford Bridge towards the end of his career, reflected on how the Wembley displays of Chelsea and Fernandez contrasted sharply with those produced in Rosenior’s final days.<\/p>\n
“They’re a product of the system they are in and in modern-day football,” Green said on BBC Radio 5 Live.<\/p>\n
“It’s ugly but they have all the power and it was epitomised by Fernandez. He ran the game. It was down to him how they played. That is not healthy for a football club but for Chelsea it gets them to finals.<\/p>\n
“Give a player an inch, they take a mile.<\/p>\n
“Chelsea do what Chelsea do. They had one big moment in the game, Leeds had three or four, but didn’t take them and that was the difference.”<\/p>\n
And what a difference a new face in the technical area makes – especially amid the dysfunction and turbulence that characterises Chelsea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Central to it all was match-winner Fernandez, the game’s outstanding performer. The Argentine’s first half-header, planted firmly past Lucas Perri after 23 minutes, turning out to be the decisive moment. It ended a run of 498 minutes without a Chelsea goal against Premier League clubs in all competitions. Victory was secured with their first clean<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}