Hire, fire, final - Chelsea's player power may be ugly, but it wins

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Figure caption,

Fernandez fires Chelsea to FA Cup final showdown with Manchester City

ByPhil McNultyChief football writer at Wembley

Published46 minutes ago
287 Comments

Liam Rosenior's thoughts would have been worth a lot more than a penny as Chelsea's triumphant players took the acclaim of their supporters inside Wembley after reaching the FA Cup final.

Chelsea's 1-0 win against a disappointing Leeds United showed much of the best of a talented group of players - but also some of the worst given their desperate efforts that led to Rosenior being shown the door after only 106 days.

If Rosenior was watching this scrappy semi-final, decided by Enzo Fernandez's first-half header, he would be right to question where all that fight and determination on show at Wembley were when he was at the helm.

These are the basics any head coach should be able to take as a given, but were absent under Rosenior during a desperate run of five league losses without scoring, a fate that had not befallen Chelsea since 1912.

Here, with an FA Cup final against Manchester City back at Wembley on 16 May as the prize, those qualities miraculously – or perhaps predictably – returned, allowing Chelsea to grind out victory.

Chelsea's players, and their derided owners BlueCo, now have the opportunity to save a shambolic season with silverware, a trick the club have performed often in the past.

Roman Abramovich's "hire 'em, fire 'em" strategy inflicted instability on Chelsea, but was also the catalyst for great glory.

In the Abramovich era, which stretched from July 2003 to May 2022, Chelsea won 18 major honours and two Community Shields, contesting 30 finals under 15 managers, including caretakers and interims.

The classic case came in 2012, when caretaker manager Roberto di Matteo won the Champions League and FA Cup after succeeding the sacked Andre Villas-Boas.

Under BlueCo's leadership, Chelsea have won two major honours - the Conference League and Club World Cup - and have now reached three finals under eight managers, including caretakers and interims.

Now, from the wreckage of a chaotic campaign, Chelsea could perform the feat again - providing the players who have gone missing so often this season show up against Manchester City and play to their capabilities.

It was clear from Rosenior's latter days that he had lost the faith of the dressing room. A dismal 3-0 loss at Brighton was the final straw for an ownership who desperately wanted the 41-year-old - brought in from another of their clubs, Strasbourg - to succeed as a symbol of their multi-club model.

It is not exactly a glowing reference for Chelsea's players that the sight of interim head coach Calum McFarlane on the touchline - or indeed anyone who was not Rosenior - prompted an instant uplift in performance and attitude.

McFarlane told BBC Radio 5 Live after the game that the team's character had been "questioned a lot and rightly so at times" - but not by him.

"I wouldn't queston their character," he added. "It's been questioned because of the results. We're playing against top teams, you get in a rut. People are reactive to the results.

"That group has massive character."

Indeed, this was a better day for Chelsea's much-criticised hierarchy, with co-owner Behdad Eghbali in close proximity at Wembley to England head coach Thomas Tuchel, the first manager to be shown the door under his rule when he was dismissed on the new regime's 100th day in September 2022.

'Give a player an inch, they take a mile'

Central to it all was match-winner Fernandez, the game's outstanding performer. The Argentine's first half-header, planted firmly past Lucas Perri after 23 minutes, turning out to be the decisive moment.

It ended a run of 498 minutes without a Chelsea goal against Premier League clubs in all competitions. Victory was secured with their first clean sheet against top-flight opposition since 17 January.

This was the same Fernandez recently given a two-match suspension by Chelsea after Rosenior said he had "crossed a line" following their Champions League exit against Paris St-Germain by giving an interview hinting at a departure.

The assumption was that he was fluttering his eyelashes at Real Madrid.

At Wembley, what should be normal service for the World Cup winner was resumed. Fernandez was the inspiration behind Chelsea's win, not just with his goal but all-round effort.

He took his goal tally this season to 13. The only midfielder to score more for a Premier League club in 2025-26 is Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White with 16.

Former England goalkeeper Rob Green, who had a spell at Stamford Bridge towards the end of his career, reflected on how the Wembley displays of Chelsea and Fernandez contrasted sharply with those produced in Rosenior's final days.

"They're a product of the system they are in and in modern-day football," Green said on BBC Radio 5 Live.

"It's ugly but they have all the power and it was epitomised by Fernandez. He ran the game. It was down to him how they played. That is not healthy for a football club but for Chelsea it gets them to finals.

"Give a player an inch, they take a mile.

"Chelsea do what Chelsea do. They had one big moment in the game, Leeds had three or four, but didn't take them and that was the difference."

And what a difference a new face in the technical area makes - especially amid the dysfunction and turbulence that characterises Chelsea.