{"id":493522,"date":"2026-01-05T06:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T06:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493522\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T06:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T06:52:14","slug":"calum-mcfarlane-names-the-chelsea-star-who-was-exceptional-in-manchester-city-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493522\/","title":{"rendered":"Calum McFarlane names the Chelsea star who was ‘exceptional’ in Manchester City comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Calum McFarlane<\/strong> will get a lot of credit following Chelsea\u2019s 1-1 draw with Manchester City, and rightly so.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No one was expecting Chelsea<\/a> to get a result at the Etihad under their interim manager, and it looked like that was going to be the case.<\/p>\n

However, Enzo Fernandez managed to pop up at the death and equalise for the Blues.<\/p>\n

Which of these players would you drop for Chelsea vs Fulham? <\/p>\n

Or would you drop anyone else? Let us know!<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n

In the end, it was a bit of a masterclass from McFarlane<\/a>, but he has been quick to give his players the credit for the team\u2019s turnaround.<\/p>\n

\"CalumPhoto by Marc Atkins\/Getty ImagesCalum McFarlane thought Andrey Santos was \u2018exceptional\u2019<\/p>\n

Chelsea went into half-time 1-0 down following Tijjani Reijnders\u2019 brilliant strike. As a result, McFarlane decided to make one change at the break, bringing on Andrey Santos<\/a> for Estevao Willian.<\/p>\n

He has since praised the midfielder, describing his performance as \u201cexceptional\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking in his post-match press conference, which has been shared by football.london<\/a>, McFarlane said: \u201cWe didn\u2019t expect them to shape up the way they did in the first-half with the No.6 on the front line. We were getting pinned back at times. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a change at half-time to go more man-to-man on the ball. Andrey Santos coming on at half-time and Enzo moving up one, I thought Andrey was exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santos has been a bit-part player at Chelsea this season, making just four starts in the Premier League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, after his latest performance and with Liam Rosenior coming in<\/a>, the 21-year-old may be in for more opportunities.<\/p>\n

\"RayanPhoto by Carl Recine\/Getty ImagesAndrey Santos\u2019 stats vs Manchester City<\/p>\n

That was probably Santos\u2019 most impactful performance in a Chelsea shirt, with the Brazilian putting up some very good numbers.<\/p>\n

For example, according to Sofascore<\/a>, Santos completed 28 of the 31 passes he attempted, giving him a 90% pass success rate.<\/p>\n

The Brazil international also made five defensive actions, which is not bad for someone who played just half of the game.<\/p>\n

How good was Andrey Santos against Manchester City? \ud83d\udc4f <\/p>\n

\"AndreyPhoto by George Wood\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n

All in all, it was a great midfield performance. The next match that Moises Caicedo misses, it would not be a surprise to see Santos come in for him.<\/p>\n

Santos and Chelsea\u2019s next game is a west London derby against Fulham. The expectation is that Rosenior will be in charge for that fixture as he closes in on a switch from Strasbourg to Chelsea.<\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n

Receive a digest of our best Chelsea content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calum McFarlane will get a lot of credit following Chelsea\u2019s 1-1 draw with Manchester City, and rightly so.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":493523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[114434,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-493522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-andrey-santos","9":"tag-soccer","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115841174318498316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}