Fernandez takes aim at Man City star Akanji on Instagram

Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji appeared to take a swipe at Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez after yesterday’s crucial Premier League match at Stamford Bridge.

Man City began their bid for a fifth straight Premier League title with a 2-0 win at Chelsea, thanks to goals from Erling Haaland and Mateo Kovacic. However, it was a wasted start for the Blues’ new manager, Enzo Maresca.

However, there was also plenty of controversy surrounding Fernandez ahead of this match as he was Chelsea captain, despite the fact that videos recently emerged of him chanting racist chants after Argentina’s Copa America victory.

BBC Sport reported on this last month, reporting that Fernandez was facing disciplinary action from Chelsea, while Fabrizio Romano also reported in the below story how the player apologised to his teammates and made a donation to an anti-discrimination charity…

?? Enzo Fernandez was back in Atlanta yesterday with the rest of the Chelsea squad.

He apologised to the players after the racist slur and told Chelsea he would make a significant donation to an anti-discrimination charity.

Reece James and Disasi, key players in the trial. photo.twitter.com/r0stiRhXxK

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 30, 2024

Meanwhile, Akanji appeared to be enjoying the fact that he got the better of Fernandez, as the Argentine featured in two of his three photos on Instagram after the match.

See below the images that the City defender has uploaded. You can also see that a number of users in the comments are noticing what he is doing…

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Even though it appears that Chelsea have resolved the issue internally, it is perhaps not so surprising that there are players who are not too happy with the fact that Fernandez is still playing for the club and is also captain for some reason.

Reece James, the first-choice captain, is currently injured, but Maresca could still have chosen a number of other options to wear the captain’s armband, rather than a relatively young and inexperienced player who has not even performed that well during his time in west London.

City next face Ipswich at home in their next match, while Chelsea play Wolves away next weekend.