Newcastle United fans not impressed by ‘overrated’ Chelsea player after his display against them

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Chelsea bowed out of this season’s Carabao Cup with a pretty tame performance away at Newcastle United on Wednesday.

Many people believe that the Chelsea squad is looking extremely strong this year, but Enzo Maresca learned last night that he can’t change his entire starting line-up against Premier League opposition and get away with it.

The Blues suffered a 2-0 defeat against Newcastle at St James’ Park, so it’s the Toon that have progressed to the League Cup quarter-finals.

Generally, there were very few positives to take from yesterday’s match. Chelsea’s Mykhailo Mudryk did impress against Newcastle with his spirited performance on the left wing, though.

• READ MORE: Alan Shearer explains what Chelsea kept doing ‘too much’ of in first half against Newcastle

Newcastle fans rip into Chelsea star Enzo Fernandez

A selection of Newcastle supporters on social media singled out Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez for some strong criticism after his cup performance against them yesterday.

The 23-year-old midfielder, who partnered Renato Veiga in the centre of the park, struggled to impact the match in a positive way. In fact, during his post-match interview, Maresca admitted Fernandez and the Chelsea players lacked control at times versus Newcastle.

Here are many Newcastle fans on X criticising Blues star Fernandez:

@JonnyJMW90 claimed: “I’m sorry, but Enzo Fernandez for £105m is not criticised nearly enough. I’d rather have Antony. Horrible, horrible player.”

@CowellJosh said: “Benfica need prison time for fleecing Chelsea of £107m great British pounds for Enzo Fernandez, he is absolutely atrocious.”

@_TYi92 wrote: “Barely even noticed he was on the pitch today. Mad to think he cost 4x more than Bruno [Guimaraes].”

@DanBurnFC posted: “Caicedo makes him look good.”

Enzo Fernandez suffers again to dent his chances of being in best XI

Unfortunately, Fernandez is in a low point in his Chelsea career, where it looks like he’s slipped out of the best starting line-up. Instead, Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia seem like the preferred midfield partnership for the Premier League.

Fernandez had a 35% win record when starting Chelsea games before losing to Newcastle this week, so that now will have dropped even lower.

FOTMOB data highlights that the Argentine midfielder enjoyed plenty of the ball in the Carabao Cup defeat, but he couldn’t do too much with it to really impact the result.

• Minutes played – 90
• Match rating – 6.5
• Total shots – 1
• Touches – 138
• Accurate passes – 106/121 (88%)
• Chances created – 1
• Passes into final third – 13
• Accurate crosses – 1/8 (13%)
• Accurate long balls – 3/6 (50%)
• Tackles won – 0/2 (0%)
• Dribbles past – 1

We’d guess that Fernandez will be back on the bench this Sunday when Chelsea travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United in the league.