The Athletic

Amongst the chaos at Stamford Bridge yesterday, there was a top draw performance from one of their usual suspects.

And James has got away from Cardio and Sterling scores.

But despite being one of the best players on the pitch in Chelsea's 4-4 draw with Manchester City,

Rahim Sterling has once again not made the latest England squad.

The door is 100% open, not only for Rahim, but for other players that aren't in this squad.

So there's no doubt about that.

I mean, we don't need to know about his quality, his personality.

He is a crucial part of why we've had the journey we've had over the last few years.

So is Sterling been unfairly overlooked or has Garra Southgate moved on with new faces such as Chelsea teammate Cole Palmer?

I'm Ayahu Akimuelere. Welcome to the Athletic Football Podcast.

Thank you. I'm Ayahu Aki Mulare. Welcome to the Athletic Football podcast. With us today, we have the Athletics, Chelsea writer Simon Johnson, Manchester City writer Sam Lee, and also The Athletics, Oli Kee, with us as well.

Right, how do we even begin to understand yesterday's match? It was pure entertainment

for the neutral. I'm going to come on to you for this one, Sam. Two of the best players for Chelsea

were ex-Manchester City players. Will City regret selling those two players to one of their biggest

rivals? No. Nobody said this about Stirling last year, did they?? Like, Sterling was great, but where were these questions last year?

The funny thing was I made this point.

I was the only person making this point last year when everyone was saying, oh, why do they let Jesus and Zinchenko go? I was like, well, why are we mentioning Sterling? Because you don't know how it's going to go. if you're going to sell these guys, there's only certain places they can go.

Cole Palmer's a really good example of that.

Because Zinchenko and Jesus went to Arsenal because Arteta knows them and loves them and knows

what they can go. Cole Palmer's a really good example of that because Zinchenko and Jayzus went to Arsenal because Arteta knows them and loves them and knows what they can bring. And Cole Palmer's gone to Chelsea because Joe Shields is there and he's known Cole Palmer for years at City because he used to be the head of academy recruitment in city. So he's brought him in there. There's not a string of clubs, a host of clubs who have got the money, particularly in Europe, or the knowledge of these players to sign them. So there's a very small group of clubs they could actually go to. But yeah, I mean, nobody was saying this about Sterling last year. And he played really well yesterday, but City didn't miss him last year. He didn't like Chelsea up last year. He's doing well now on fair play to him. City wanted to keep Palmer. He wanted to go. Again, fair play to him. He was really good, but I mean, he looks the guide, isn't it? He looks like the main guy at Chelsea, obviously taking penalties already. In that Spurs game the other night, he looked like he was really clued in and switched on and knew the game plan. Again, all these four players I've mentioned going to Arsenal Chelsea, it shows the level at the city, doesn't it? Like, these aren't the main guys at City by any means. Sterling was, but not by the time he left. And now they've gone to other clubs and they're really showing how good they are. And yeah, we definitely saw that yesterday. Yeah, Simon, cities, I guess, losses to a certain degree. Chelsea's gain to a certain degree.

I mean, Chelsea just loves scoring goals. What's that? Eight goals in the last two games in the Premier League? That's insane.

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