{"id":10380,"date":"2026-05-19T03:15:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T03:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=10380"},"modified":"2026-05-19T03:15:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T03:15:59","slug":"mcfarlane-claims-chelsea-up-there-with-the-best-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=10380","title":{"rendered":"McFarlane claims Chelsea &#8220;up there&#8221; with the best in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Chelsea are a long way off Man City at the moment, and their caretaker was asked how they could close the gap.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em>If you enjoy Chelsea News coverage and want to see more of it, add us as a preferred source on Google to make us a favourite and see more of our content.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Chelsea put up a good fight against Man City on Saturday, but were eventually beaten, making it 7 Wembley finals in a row without a win for the Blues.<\/p>\n<p>After the game, Calum McFarlane was asked about his team and what the gap between them and their opposition on Saturday was, in a big picture sense.<\/p>\n<h2>McFarlane on the difference between Chelsea and serial winners City<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s a really interesting question, albeit probably not one best aimed at McFarlane, whose brief in these press conferences is basically to give away as little as possible. Still, he gave some very general thoughts:<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" data-tmdatatrack-visible=\"true\">\u201cIt\u2019s hard to make that call\u2026 I felt like with all the injuries we\u2019ve got in our squad, it was an even game in my opinion. I think that shows the level of this group, the quality of this group. We haven\u2019t done it on a consistent basis otherwise we wouldn\u2019t be where we are in the league. But there\u2019s also been a lot of change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" data-tmdatatrack-visible=\"true\">\u201cThere\u2019s also been a lot that\u2019s gone on at the club. It\u2019s not my place to say what\u2019s right or wrong but that can affect momentum and that can affect the group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" data-tmdatatrack-visible=\"true\">\u201cBut when this group is at their best, I think we\u2019re up there with anyone in Europe. So how do we produce that on a more consistent basis? That\u2019s what we\u2019ll be looking at at the end of the season. That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to help the group with. So they have to want to produce that and they\u2019re capable of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>In other news\u2026<\/h2>\n<p>Levi Colwill\u2019s performance was another talking point from the game, and McFarlane spoke about the defender in glowing terms.<\/p>\n<p>Colwill looks almost certain to miss tomorrow\u2019s game after the latest updates from Chelsea\u2019s caretaker coach on his fitness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL CHELSEA NEWS APP FOR ALL THE LATEST UPDATES \u2013 STRAIGHT TO YOUR PHONE! ON THE APP STORE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips\u2019 SPTC podcast here:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SPTC Podcast! Fresh Xabi Alonso to Chelsea news! Summer Transfer Plans! FA Cup Final Preview!\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yiYy60DQcxI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<section class=\"more-stories std-mgn-b\">&#13;<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<header class=\"col-s-12 std-mgn-t\">More Stories about <span class=\"topic\">Pep Guardiola<\/span><\/header>\n<div class=\"post-container col-s-4\">\n<p>\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<div class=\"img-cntr\"><picture><source type=\"image\/webp\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-190x127.jpg.webp 190w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-245x163.jpg.webp 245w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-320x213.jpg.webp 320w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-414x276.jpg.webp 414w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-630x420.jpg.webp 630w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 250px, (min-width:1020px) 20vw, (min-width:920px) 290px, (min-width:680px) 30vw, (min-width:394px) 130px, 33vw\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"3618\" height=\"2412\" src=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-159508 has-webp lazyload\" alt=\"Pep Guardiola arrives at Manchester City game.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-190x127.jpg 190w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-245x163.jpg 245w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-320x213.jpg 320w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-414x276.jpg 414w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-630x420.jpg 630w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 250px, (min-width:1020px) 20vw, (min-width:920px) 290px, (min-width:680px) 30vw, (min-width:394px) 130px, 33vw\"\/><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-container col-s-4\">\n<p>\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<div class=\"img-cntr\"><picture><source type=\"image\/webp\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-190x127.jpg.webp 190w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-245x163.jpg.webp 245w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-320x213.jpg.webp 320w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-414x276.jpg.webp 414w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-630x420.jpg.webp 630w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 250px, (min-width:1020px) 20vw, (min-width:920px) 290px, (min-width:680px) 30vw, (min-width:394px) 130px, 33vw\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"3618\" height=\"2412\" src=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-159508 has-webp lazyload\" alt=\"Pep Guardiola arrives at Manchester City game.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-190x127.jpg 190w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-245x163.jpg 245w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-320x213.jpg 320w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-414x276.jpg 414w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-630x420.jpg 630w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 250px, (min-width:1020px) 20vw, (min-width:920px) 290px, (min-width:680px) 30vw, (min-width:394px) 130px, 33vw\"\/><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div 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arrives at Manchester City game.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-190x127.jpg 190w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-245x163.jpg 245w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-320x213.jpg 320w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-414x276.jpg 414w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Getty-Images-5-630x420.jpg 630w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 250px, (min-width:1020px) 20vw, (min-width:920px) 290px, (min-width:680px) 30vw, (min-width:394px) 130px, 33vw\"\/><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/section>\n<p><!-- Article End -->\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea are a long way off Man City at the moment, and their caretaker was&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}