{"id":8633,"date":"2026-05-15T08:02:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=8633"},"modified":"2026-05-15T08:02:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:02:26","slug":"mcfarlane-responds-to-peps-advantage-claims-after-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=8633","title":{"rendered":"McFarlane responds to Pep&#8217;s &#8220;advantage&#8221; claims after comments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Pep Guardiola made the point that Chelsea are going to have an advantage in this week\u2019s FA Cup final at Wembley.<\/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 play Man City this weekend in the FA Cup final, and the Blues have had more than a week to recover since their draw with Liverpool. Their opposition, on the other hand, had a tough midweek Premier League game.<\/p>\n<p>City coach Pep Guardiola claimed that this would give the Blues an \u201cadvantage,\u201d and interim manager Calum McFarlane didn\u2019t disagree.<\/p>\n<h2>Chelsea caretaker responds to claims from legendary coach<\/h2>\n<p><span>\u201cYeah, it\u2019s tough when you have a game midweek and you have a triple game week, it\u2019s tough,\u201d McFarlane admitted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of them this year but we\u2019re focused on ourselves, we\u2019re focused on how we prepare, we\u2019re playing against an excellent side and an excellent coach so we need to be at our best, irrelevant if they\u2019ve had a triple game week or not, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re focused on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Despite their busy midweek, City are heavy favourites for the game. We just hope Chelsea play well enough that their fatigue (or lack thereof) is actually a factor.<\/p>\n<h2>In other news\u2026<\/h2>\n<p>McFarlane confirmed that Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho are likely to be fit for the game, although he continued to give frustratingly little detail.<\/p>\n<p>There were questions about Levi Colwill in the presser after the defender made a successful return from a long term injury against Liverpool last week.<\/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: Chelsea Reporter Lloyd Canfield joins the show!\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7UP6ox8d4pk?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 class=\"post-container col-s-4\">\n<p>\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<div class=\"img-cntr\"><picture><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Liverpool-FC-v-Manchester-City-Premier-League-1574322239.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-54295 lazyload\" alt=\"Pep Guardiola in the dugout for Man City\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Liverpool-FC-v-Manchester-City-Premier-League-1574322239-300x200.jpg 300w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Liverpool-FC-v-Manchester-City-Premier-League-1574322239-768x512.jpg 768w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 250px, (min-width:1020px) 20vw, (min-width:920px) 290px, (min-width:680px) 30vw, (min-width:394px) 130px, 33vw\"\/><\/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>Pep Guardiola made the point that Chelsea are going to have an advantage in this&#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-8633","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\/8633","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=8633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8633\/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=8633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}