Pep Guardiola's verdict
[Were you particularly pleased with the first 45 minutes?] 90 minutes. 95. We played so good the whole game. They were more aggressive in the second half but we had our chances to close the game. We didn’t do it and at 1-0 anything can happen with the quality they have.
[On the injuries to Josko Gvardiola and Ruben Dias] It doesn’t look good. We’ll see in the next few days.
[Will it change your transfer plans?] No idea. No idea.
Updated
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.
McFarlane might not get another if Chelsea can, as they hope, appoint a permanent successor to Maresca before Wednesday night’s derby at Fulham. Liam Rosenior of Strasbourg is their No 1 target. But McFarlane can look back with pride and maybe a touch of amazement on his moment in the spotlight as Chelsea held their own with City before stunning them with a stoppage-time Enzo Fernández equaliser.
