Chelsea are taking lessons from a 1-1 draw with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium earlier this year into today’s FA Cup final, with Calum McFarlane saying the contest showed the team how to survive, adjust and stay alive in the biggest moments. Enzo Fernandez’s stoppage-time equaliser that night rescued a point for Chelsea, and McFarlane believes that response could matter again when the trophy is on the line.
McFarlane said the first half against City was difficult and that Chelsea got the preparation wrong, allowing City too much control. He said the team changed tack after the break, pushed higher and looked to win more territory. “We didn’t want the game to look the way it did. We had to suffer. We had to run. We had to defend our box really well,” he said. “We made some changes in the second half to try and shift the momentum and be a bit more aggressive and get a bit more territory, and it worked in some elements.”
That draw, he said, was also his first game in senior management, which gave it extra weight in his own mind. Chelsea’s staff have since gone back over that match, along with other games involving City, including the more recent defeat at Stamford Bridge, as part of their planning for the final. McFarlane said the wider pattern has been useful, not just one result, because it has shown the team what happens when they match elite opposition for energy and concentration.
The blueprint he sees is not based only on City. McFarlane said the draws at City and Liverpool, along with the semi-final success over Leeds, could point Chelsea toward what they need today. He said the players earned their reward for the fight they showed against City, and he is backing them to do it again. “I’m confident in this group,” he said. “We have got top players – you saw that on Saturday when we played against Liverpool.”
That confidence is rooted in work as much as talent. McFarlane said the second-half performance against City came more from the players than from him, and he believes that is what gives the team belief heading into the final. Chelsea’s challenge now is to turn the kind of resilience they showed earlier this year into something that lasts for 90 minutes, not just for a comeback.
Reece James and the rest of Chelsea’s senior group now carry that history into today, with the memory of Etihad still fresh and the margin for error gone. McFarlane has seen enough in the team’s recent tests to trust that they can lean on those lessons again when the final begins.
