Man City's Premier League title hopes are fading away - but Rodri's return is a Champions League game-changer: Winners and losers after manager-less Chelsea show fighting spirit while Pep Guardiola sweats on injured defenders

Gary Neville said during his Sky Sports commentary that Chelsea are a team full of young players with potential but lack experienced operators to inspire and guide everyone else. Enzo Fernandez is fast becoming their most important player in that respect. He might only be 24 years old, but Fernandez is a World Cup winner with Argentina as well as being a Club World Cup winner with Chelsea.

When he moved to Stamford Bridge for a Premier League-record fee of £106 million ($142m) in January 2023, Fernandez was a symbol of the extravagance of the Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali regime, but he has proven to be a wise investment, giving the team direction and stability in an otherwise turbulent era. And despite notionally being a deep-lying midfielder, Fernandez is now Chelsea's joint-top scorer in the league alongside Joao Pedro. 

He was the Blues' inspiration as they came alive in the second half in Manchester, with Andrey Santos' introduction encouraging him to get forward and create danger. He did just that when he pirouetted to play in Pedro Neto, the forward wasting a fine opportunity by blasting over the bar. In the end, the Argentine took matters into his own hands, pouncing on the loose ball to beat Gianluigi Donnarumma at the second time of asking before burying himself among the throng of celebrating Chelsea fans.

In the space of just four days, the size of Man City's points deficit to Arsenal has tripled. The draw at Sunderland was easy enough to swallow as no other visiting team has won at the Stadium of Light this season, but this result almost felt like a defeat. City were so on top throughout, and Guardiola was at pains to point out how good his side had been. It felt like an injustice had been served. 

Arsenal, by contrast, came away from their enthralling and testing match at Bournemouth with all three points, having walloped Aston Villa in their previous game. City have hauled back a six-point deficit with Arsenal before, but the wind appears to be firmly in the Gunners' sails this time around.

While City are running out of defenders, Arsenal have just recovered their defensive talisman Gabriel Magalhaes, while Declan Rice has quickly recovered from a knee scare and the return of forwards Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz has boosted their attack. Only a fool would write City off at this stage, but they will have their work cut out to try and reel in Mikel Arteta's side. 

Sunday was Rodri's first start in three months, and given how he suffered an injury relapse in that outing against Brentford, City fans must have been worried when he was sent crashing to the floor by Reece James early on in the game. There was no need to worry, though, as Rodri dusted himself down and continued to play as if he had never torn his ACL and MCL, nor suffered any other injuries over the last two years. 

This was a vintage version of Rodri. He dictated the tempo of the game from the start, deciding whether City should suffocate Chelsea through possession or unpick their opponents with fast passing. He was adept at doing both and he also made others tick. Bernardo Silva, who has had a pretty quiet season, was unleashed and emboldened to get forward while Rayan Cherki benefitted from the steady supply of passes Rodri provided, including one with his head. City looked both much more purposeful with the ball and much less vulnerable without it thanks to Rodri's presence.

"He's an extraordinary player; his composure, he makes us play better in many things," gushed Guardiola. The coach did, however, refer to "the big question mark", which is whether Rodri will be able to play against Brighton on Wednesday at the same level and return to playing three times a week, something Guardiola said was not possible earlier in the season.

If Rodri can keep this level of performance up then City might just stand a chance of catching Arsenal. But if that proves too big an ask, he can turbocharge their bid to win the Champions League. And if City lose more ground to the Gunners, there is an argument for wrapping the Ballon d'Or-winning midfielder in cotton wool and keeping him in pristine competition for European nights. 

Erling Haaland was millimetres away from scoring with a thumping drive in the first half, with almost everyone inside the Etihad expecting his shot to end up in the net rather than cannon back off the post. He was incredibly unlucky, but it was one of just two efforts that came close to going in during an overall disappointing display from City's top scorer.

Whisper it quietly, but Haaland is on a goal drought by his ridiculously high standards. He has now failed to score in his last three league matches, his longest spell without finding the net all season. 

Of course, all Haaland droughts must be put in the context of his outrageous goal numbers, and it is largely because of him and his 19 strikes that City are still in the title race at all. But it means that when City fail to win and he fails to hit the target, the finger of blame will inevitably point his way.

It was fitting that Chelsea's manager for the day should take his Premier League bow at the Etihad Stadium given it is directly across the road from where McFarlane used to work within City's academy for four years. He rarely came into contact with Guardiola during his time at City, though, admitting in his pre-match press conference that he does not know the coach whom he later described as 'the best in football history'.

This was Guardiola's 1012th senior game as a coach and his 561st in charge of City. McFarlane, by contrast, had never coached above Under-21 level and has only worked at Chelsea since the start of the season, having initially being hired from Southampton's academy as assistant coach for the Blues' U21s before Filipe Coelho left for Strasbourg.

McFarlane outlined his credentials for a senior job in the future by making some clever tactical tweaks on Sunday. He sacrificed Estevao for Santos at half-time to bring more balance to the midfield and Chelsea were instantly more comfortable, giving City two scares soon after the restart. Midway through the second half, he swapped the ineffective Joao Pedro for Liam Delap, who gave his former club several frights before setting up the equaliser.

For 90 minutes, the rookie went toe-to-toe with the most decorated coach in modern football and the gulf in experience barely showed.

Losing one central defender to injury in a game is unfortunate, especially when they are an important source of goals and assists. Losing another, who just happens to be the defensive leader, is wretched luck.

Gvardiol looked in real pain when he left the pitch midway through the second half, and Guardiola tried to lift his spirits as he limped away. "Doesn't look good" was all the coach could say post-match, however.

Dias' injury seemed less severe, but Guardiola also ruled him out of Wednesday's game against Brighton. City have been missing John Stones, their most experienced defender, since early December, meaning they are now without their three main central defenders.

It means that against Brighton, they will have to rely on Nathan Ake, who has a terrible injury record of his own, and the still very raw Abdukodir Khusanov, who made just his sixth appearance of the league season against Chelsea and who has not started a league game since facing Arsenal in September, when he was hooked at half-time.

Some say defences win titles. If that is true, then City will struggle to win this one if the injuries to Dias and Gvardiol are as severe as Guardiola seemed to suggest.