{"id":37345,"date":"2023-08-31T08:56:52","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T08:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=37345"},"modified":"2023-08-31T08:56:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T08:56:53","slug":"premier-league-chelsea-2-1-afc-wimbledon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/08\/31\/premier-league-chelsea-2-1-afc-wimbledon\/","title":{"rendered":"Premier League: Chelsea 2 -1 AFC Wimbledon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If in doubt turn to the \u00a3106.8m world champion sitting on the bench. It was the equivalent of money shouting through a megaphone when Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez entered the fray after 65 minutes of watching Chelsea toil against the side sitting fifth in League Two. Mauricio Pochettino was in no mood to be caught out this early into his time at Stamford Bridge and, hard though\u00a0AFC Wimbledon fought to upset the odds, a feisty Carabao Cup tie was only going one way once Fern\u00e1ndez was on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Argentina midfielder was never going to miss when he was presented with the chance to score his first goal for\u00a0Chelsea after a mix-up in the Wimbledon defence with 19 minutes remaining. Fern\u00e1ndez was simply too cool, too composed, and Pochettino\u2019s side could finally spy a route into the third round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stamford<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It had not been\u00a0awarded harsh penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pochettino, who knows he has to bring silverware to Stamford Bridge, was relieved. There was little cohesion from Chelsea, even after Noni Madueke levelled from the spot just before half-time, and the scares continued deep into seven minutes of added time, Ali al-Hamadi twice spurning opportunities to force a shootout. \u201cI\u2019m so proud,\u201d Johnnie Jackson, the Wimbledon manager, said. \u201cI\u2019m just a bit gutted we haven\u2019t pushed them all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was an experimental lineup from Pochettino, who handed full debuts to Lesley Ugochukwu, Mason Burstow and Diego Moreira, but Chelsea still had plenty of firepower on a bench containing the two most expensive players in the history of English football. Wimbledon, after all, have been known to pull off an upset or two in their time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps that was why Pochettino had Mois\u00e9s Caicedo and Fern\u00e1ndez sitting amongst the substitutes, just in case Chelsea needed to unleash \u00a3221.8m worth of midfield talent. \u201cI think their manager\u2019s hoping he doesn\u2019t have to use them,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cIt\u2019s testament to my players that he had to bring them on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"AFC
AFC Wimbledon\u2019s James Tilley celebrates putting his side ahead from the penalty spot. Photograph: Ian Stephen\/ProSports\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There was nothing complicated about Wimbledon\u2019s approach. Their physicality unsettled Chelsea and Pell relished his role as pantomime villain. The midfielder was a constant pest and there was an inevitability to him being involved in the opening goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The danger came when Wimbledon pumped a free-kick into the area. Pell leapt into the challenge and soon found himself on the turf. Robert S\u00e1nchez had flown off his line and, while Chelsea\u2019s goalkeeper made clean contact with his punch, he was penalised by the referee, Tony Harrison, for catching Pell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chelsea disagreed with the decision. Pell stayed down for treatment, though he recovered sufficiently to direct a clenched fist at the home supporters as they rained abuse down on him. It all felt worth it once James Tilley blasted the penalty past S\u00e1nchez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pochettino was incandescent. There was a sharp exchange of words with Pell before the game resumed and Chelsea found it difficult to regain their composure at first. The closest they came to an equaliser was when Ian Maatsen saw a deflected effort spin just wide. \u201cIt was tough,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cI am happy with the performance overall. We had players on the bench if they were needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nerves only faded when Madueke wriggled clear on the right and lured Alex Pearce into a risky challenge. It was a clear penalty and Madueke made Pochettino\u2019s half-time speech a little easier by sending Alex Bass the wrong way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pochettino was proactive, though. Nicolas Jackson came on for Moreira, who struggled on the left, and Chelsea moved the ball with more urgency at the start of the second half. Jackson threatened and Conor Gallagher, wearing the armband, tested Bass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Wimbledon retained a threat on the break and it took a fine block from Axel Disasi to deny al-Hamadi after the substitute outmuscled Marc Cucurella, perhaps making Manchester United think twice about signing the left-back on loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was time for Chelsea to turn to Fern\u00e1ndez, who soon tested Bass with a curling drive. Wimbledon were wobbling and they cracked when Bass raced out to deal with a pass from Cucurella, struck his clearance against Maatsen and was stranded when the ball ran to Fern\u00e1ndez, who delivered swift and decisive punishment from 20 yards out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That should have been that, though Wimbledon kept chasing an equaliser. They could take pride in seeing Pochettino bring Caicedo on to see it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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If in doubt turn to the \u00a3106.8m world champion sitting on the bench. It was the equivalent of money shouting through a megaphone when Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez entered the fray after 65 minutes of watching Chelsea toil against the side sitting fifth in League Two. Mauricio Pochettino was in no mood to be caught out this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":37346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[4791,10502,4173,8173,8496,7960,8924,169,7712,7319,5247,803,7356,7225,3684,12791,11252,115,4358,10481,5612,11973,13256,499,267,10041,7422,1664,7419,8206,5448,36,7560,594],"class_list":["post-37345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-abuse","tag-afc-wimbledon","tag-argentina","tag-bridge","tag-carabao-cup","tag-case","tag-chance","tag-chelsea","tag-english","tag-fern","tag-football","tag-goalkeeper","tag-jackson","tag-loan","tag-london","tag-manager","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-united","tag-mauricio-pochettino","tag-midfield","tag-money","tag-one","tag-players","tag-pochettino","tag-premier-league","tag-speech","tag-spy","tag-stephen","tag-the-game","tag-treatment","tag-wimbledon","tag-world","tag-world-champion","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37347,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37345\/revisions\/37347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}