Tyrone Francis
19.5K posts

Tyrone Francis
@TJFrancisLive
Sports journalist @skynews | Got a story? E: tyrone.francis{at}https://t.co/d46vqjGmDX | East Londoner | #MUFC Stretford End STH| 🇱🇨🇯🇲











Tonight belongs to us because of you, the best away fans in the land. UNITED! ✊🇾🇪





Strong leadership by Chelsea to omit Enzo Fernandez for next two games. Unlikely to have played in the first, Port Vale in the FA Cup, but dropping him against Manchester City in the Premier League is significant. Chelsea need the points to get back in the Champions League positions. Enzo is a winner and productive (8g, 3a in 30 PL this season). But his exclusion is clearly the right decision. Enzo’s flirtation with Real Madrid was disrespectful to Chelsea fans, team-mates, head coach, staff, sporting directors and board. He’s vice-captain. He's captain in the absence of Reece James and certainly hasn’t behaved like one. Some of Enzo’s frustration about the club’s direction is understandable but it’s unprofessional and unhelpful to state it publicly. Liam Rosenior is under enough pressure without dressing-room unrest/division. Enzo has also criticised underperforming team-mates like Filip Jorgensen against PS-G. All a bit rich: Enzo kept giving the ball away against Everton (still had two shots well-saved by Jordan Pickford). Opportunity for Cole Palmer at 10 v City? Palmer is not in the best of form, is better floating inside from the right with the ball, and is a different type of 10 to Enzo. Chelsea have options with Enzo dropped. They have enough wingers (Estevao, Neto) to cover Palmer moving inside. They have enough midfielders with Andrey Santos/Romeo Lavia although Moises Caicedo is far from his peak form. A booking against City (the 32nd PL fixture so two-game ban for 10th booking applies) would see Caicedo miss Manchester United at home and Brighton away. Chelsea discipline needs addressing more broadly. Rosenior says he has spoken to Marc Cucurella about his comments in an interview with The Athletic. Cucurella praised Rosenior but questioned why Enzo Maresca was eased out. Should he have been punished by club, too? He wasn’t indulging in transfer speculation as Fernandez was. His comments were actually sensible (a new manager really needs a pre-season etc). And, of course, as one Chelsea fan observed, Cucurella is difficult to drop as no quality replacement at left-back. A final thing on Enzo… would he actually get in Real Madrid’s team? Would Kylian Mbappe welcome the Argentinian who mocked the Frenchman and his team last year? #CFC






