Alejandro Garnacho demonstrates a unique love for Wales, as Liam Rosenior has to defend taking a nerve-wracking risk with Chelsea squad rotation

Wrexham 2 v Chelsea 4 (aet)

FA Cup

Fifth Round

Talking Points

By Kaz Mochlinski at the Racecourse Ground

Alejandro Garnacho must love Wales. The Argentinian winger has played a pivotal role in both of Chelsea’s challenging visits to the principality in the cups this season, being vital to victories at Cardiff City and now Wrexham.

Garnacho scored the first and last goals in overcoming Cardiff City 1-3 in the quarter-finals of the Football League Cup in December, after being brought on as a second half substitute, and he was even more impressive in North Wales than in South Wales.

Exactly as he had done at the Cardiff City Stadium, Garnacho put Chelsea ahead for the first time at the Racecourse Ground, but, in the case of this FA Cup fifth round tie, it was not until extra-time, with the Blues having twice recovered from being behind.

He had already been responsible for Chelsea’s first equaliser, when cleverly released on the left by Liam Delap to get a quick shot away. It was stopped on the goalline by George Thomason, but rebounded in off the prone Arthur Okonkwo for an own goal.

Wrexham’s goalkeeper and captain was extremely unlucky to unknowingly concede in that way, but Garnacho was equally unfortunate not to be given the goal officially, since his strike was heading in when it started pinballing off the home players.

Chelsea’s £40 million summer signing from Manchester United has only netted once in the Premier League for his new club, and not since October. However, in the cup competitions, he has subsequently scored six times (in 11 appearances).

Garnacho also contributed crucially at Wrexham in the hosts being reduced to 10 men, in stoppage time at the end of the second half, with the match poised at 2-2, as it was his counter-attack down the left wing which drew a rash tackle from George Dobson.

The red card made extra-time easier for the top flight team, who were additionally assisted by the introduction from the substitutes’ bench of Marc Cucurella and João Pedro, underlining their vastly superior strength in depth.

Chelsea were able to leave Cole Palmer, Estêvão Willian, Moisés Caicedo and Enzo Fernández out of their squad for this Saturday evening encounter, as well as keeping Reece James among the unused subs.

The Chelsea starting XI still cost £308.5 million to assemble, compared to Wrexham’s starting XI costing £20.9 million - underlining that, despite their Hollywood owners, the Welsh club continue to have a gigantic gulf to bridge to the Londoners’ level.

Nevertheless, Wrexham made the contest thoroughly nerve-wracking for their illustrious visitors, right up to the 125th minute when João Pedro produced a fine finish for 2-4, taking him to 11 goals in his last 12 games for Chelsea in all competitions.

Afterwards, the Blues’ head coach, Liam Rosenior, was unusually defensive about his selection and tactics, especially with regard to resting so many senior players ahead of the trip to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League four days later.

Rosenior’s 3-4-3 formation lasted less than an hour, at which point he took off Jorrel Hato - on his 20th birthday - and Roméo Lavia, who was making his first start for over four months as he comes back from another injury.

Remarkably, the hugely talented Lavia has not yet completed a full 90 minutes (let alone 120 minutes), in 33 appearances for Chelsea over the course of three seasons since being signed from Southampton for an initial outlay of £53 million.

Rosenior justified using a semi-fit Lavia and Dário Essugo by insisting that he will need all of his players for the demands of the run-in to the end of the season, and the only way for them to get match sharpness is through minutes on the pitch.

Meanwhile, many of the regular starters are seen as requiring recovery time - and Rosenior will be well aware that the dismissal of his predecessor, Enzo Maresca, was in part related to disagreements with the club medical staff over player workloads.

“What the players are showing me, no matter who is on the pitch, is a really good spirit and a belief and a determination to win games of football - which we’re going to need for the rest of the season” was Rosenior’s typically forthright view, and he added:

“It’s not guaranteed if you start your first XI that these games will become easier. These are tough games. And also the amount of games that my squad have had in the last 18 months is the biggest in the world. So, at some point, I have to trust the group.”

He accepts too that, for him, every selection is still, to some extent, an experiment: “I think you’ve got to take into account, when you make changes, there’s a rhythm - and a consistency in a rhythm - that you need. That’s definitely true.

“That’s a risk as a manager that you take. But also, if you don’t give the players the opportunity to play, you’ll never build that continuity in the long term. I’m still learning about this group. I’ve been at the club for two months.

“It probably feels longer for everyone because we’ve had so many games. I’m still learning. I’m still learning about what our players are capable of, how they see the game. But…

“We’ve put ourselves in a really strong position in every competition since I’ve joined. And I’m learning. I think it’s 15 games and 10 wins, two draws, and three defeats. It’s not a bad place to be.

“What we now have to do is make sure that we capitalise on the position we’re in, in all the competitions.”

Rosenior may keep repeating that he is still learning with Chelsea, but a lot of the tactical tweaks which he tries to implement are not viable and have to be quickly abandoned, as again happened at Wrexham.

In his first coaching assignment at this level, he seems to want to show off with clever new ideas, but recurringly has to resort back to the Blues’ proven and well-established set-ups, giving an increasing impression of beginning to flounder in the role.

He also reiterated a couple of times his reasonable record of results at Chelsea so far, as if awkwardly seeking to elevate his achievement, despite having faced a mostly easy run of fixtures in which the Londoners would expect to be successful.

Even winning away to Wrexham, as a Premier League side against Championship opposition, should not have needed extra-time before the FIFA Club World Champions finally made it through to the last eight of the FA Cup.

Yet Rosenior credited the hosts for stretching Chelsea to such an extent, and he hailed the eventual win as a significant step forward for his team, stating: “That’s every reason why the FA Cup is what it is.

“I think they were magnificent. Magnificent in their energy, and how brave they were in the press, and how they played. Then we had to be at a high, high level. We were pushed all the way by a very good team. You’ve got to show character as well.”