Axel Disasi and his Chelsea teammates picked up a pretty impressive result on Sunday as they drew 4-4 with Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues played and won a thrilling encounter against Tottenham Hotspur just last week, and the Premier League delivered yet again this weekend.
Indeed, in a game full of twists and turns, Erling Haaland opened the scoring from the spot but it didn’t take long for Thiago Silva to level things. Mauricio Pochettino’s men then took the lead through Raheem Sterling but Manuel Akanji headed in to make it 2-2 at the break.
After that thrilling first 45 minutes, the second half was just as good as it delivered four more goals evenly shared between the two clubs. Haaland swiftly put City in front but they were pegged back again, this time thanks to Nicolas Jackson’s close-range finish. With just minutes left on the clock, Rodri appeared to have stolen a winner but this only set the stage for Cole Palmer to bag a last-minute leveller against his former club.
Chelsea impress against the big teams at Stamford Bridge
Considering how bad Chelsea were last season, a result like this against the reigning Premier League champions will give their youthful squad a big boost in confidence.
In fact, the Blues have now hosted City, Arsenal, and Liverpool at Stamford Bridge this season and are yet to lose any of those games, drawing all three. And they also beat Spurs away in that aforementioned crazy game.
It certainly seems as though the team are beginning to find their feet under new manager Pochettino. After all, having lost three of their opening six league matches, they’ve only been beaten on one occasion in the following six outings leading up until the current international break.
Against City, they showed plenty of fight and passion – even if Marc Cucurella was lucky to avoid a red card for one unscrupulous incident – and this fiery attitude was well summed up in a key moment towards the end of the game. Chelsea had just won a penalty, and Kyle Walker was trying to kick up a fuss, likely hoping to add to the tension to put off Palmer before his spot-kick
However, as you can see in the footage below, players such as Disasi and Malo Gusto just laughed in the face of his antics. On top of that, you can also see striker Jackson shushing former Stamford Bridge star Mateo Kovacic.
Just look at the way Disasi and Gusto are laughing at Walker while he was acting up and also take a look at Jackson shushing Kovacic there😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/1HcWHGtfQy
— StarboyTips (@StarboyTips) November 13, 2023
Having been involved in this little clash with Walker, Disasi took to social media after the game to share his feelings on it all. He shared an image of himself in his verbal confrontation with the City defender but added the caption: “We’re afraid of no one, we don’t give up.” It quickly went viral, picking up 2.5m views on X (formerly Twitter).
Disasi: “We’re afraid of no one, we don’t give up.” [instagram] #cfc pic.twitter.com/PTqDoKcRvh
— CFCDaily (@CFCDaily) November 12, 2023
Pochettino bigs up Chelsea belief after Man City draw
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Pochettino suggested that the positive result would help“build belief and confidence”within his team. Judging from Disasi’s Instagram post, it’s hard to argue with the Chelsea manager. In full, he said:
“There are things to improve, but it’s the process. When you want to build a project from zero, this type of thing is really good. These types of experiences will improve a lot out play and our team. But now we need to translate in the future.
“I am so tired, after Monday [the 4-1 win against Tottenham] and Sunday. I don’t want to be wrong when I assess, but if I go back, we were very disappointed [with earlier] results but this is a process. It’s a young team, you feel the pressure to win. This type of performance will build belief and confidence.”