Chelsea 0-2 Manchester City (Haaland 18′, Kovacic 84′) STAMFORD BRIDGE — Ah, the beautiful game is back, in all its marvellous, compelling, confusing and beastly glory. The marquee fixture of the opening weekend of the 2024-25 Premier League season between a club that has no clue if the conclusion to a hearing into the 115 charges against them will result in expulsion from the top flight come the end of the season and a club that quite possibly has no clue. Still, if it was a Big Game Sunday against two of the Big Six, where anything could happen, why did, from a football perspective, it have a feeling of inevitability about it all? Manchester City winning, Erling Haaland scoring, the world continuing to spin on its axis.
If Enzo Maresca, the fourth new manager entering the third season since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover, had hoped that match-day would provide some reprieve from the madness of Chelsea Football Club, he was made acutely aware of the 24/7, round-the-clock chaos at Stamford Bridge when he left Raheem Sterling out of the squad and, while the players were still out warming up, a representative immediately released a statement saying the player would seek clarity from the club on his future. Maresca said it was merely a "technical decision", that it was his job to make difficult choices and that players might not like them. He had probably expected.
.. Sam Cunningham.
