The dust has now begun to settle on Chelsea’s first game of the Premier League season which ended in defeat at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues were soundly beaten by Manchester City, although the biggest story of the game became clear before a ball was even kicked.
Raheem Sterling’s camp put out a statement before the game even started asking for clarity on his situation after he had been left out the matchday squad completely for the league opener.
- READ MORE: Gary Lineker has theory for why Raheem Sterling released statement after Chelsea dropped him
While this overshadowed what happened on the pitch at Stamford Bridge, there were some individual performances that deserved recognition.
One of these was from Romeo Lavia, who was actually making his first competitive start for the club despite joining over a year ago.
Gary Neville impressed by Romeo Lavia
Chelsea fans were impressed with Lavia too, with them believing he should remain a starter going forwards.
Another figure who praised him was Gary Neville, who told Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football that he thought he was a bright spark for the Blues.
He said: “Lavia looked very good. I was impressed by him. But Caicedo and Fernandez have got to find a way of playing and Maresca has to find a way to get them into the team, because I wanted more from them yesterday.
“Not necessarily on the ball, I wanted them to be aggressive and difficult to play against.”
Enzo Fernandez struggles vs Man City
Enzo Fernandez in particular seemed to struggle with what was being asked of him by Enzo Maresca on Sunday, with his role being to link things up between the midfield and attack.
There is an argument that Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall could be better suited to performing this task, with the new manager more than aware of where his strengths lie.
There will be an opportunity for rotation for Chelsea when they get their Conference League campaign underway in the final qualifying round against Servette.
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