It would have been easy for Pep Guardiola and Manchester City to think that this was a good time to face Chelsea. The London club had crashed in December, their Premier League form awful and the rising tensions between Enzo Maresca and the board would explode on New Year’s Eve.
There have not been many managerial changes on the very first day of a year and this one left Calum McFarlane, the club’s under-21 coach, thrust in as the interim manager. Never before had he taken charge of a single senior game.
