Chelsea’s Under-21 head coach, Calum McFarlane, will take temporary charge of the first team for Sunday’s Premier League clash against Manchester City following the departure of Enzo Maresca on New Year’s Day.
According to a post obtained from the club’s website, speaking at Cobham ahead of the match, McFarlane described the past 24 hours as “a crazy whirlwind” but said he is focused on preparing the players for the Etihad Stadium.
“We don’t know what the future beyond this game is, but right now the brief is just to prepare the lads for Man City on Sunday.
“We will go there looking to give a good account of ourselves and trying to obtain a good result,” he said.
He acknowledged the challenge of facing Pep Guardiola’s side, adding: “We know we will be facing a good team, in good form and led by a great manager. But we have good players too, and we will be going into the game being as positive as possible.”
On the injury front, McFarlane provided an update on Marc Cucurella, who missed the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth last time out.
“With Marc, it is positive [that he’s back in training] and we will see with him,” McFarlane said. “We’re undecided on that [whether he will play]; I don’t have the full information on him as of yet. Otherwise, we don’t have any other updates on players at the moment.”
Chelsea will hope to start 2026 with a strong performance at the Etihad under McFarlane’s temporary leadership.
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