Aston Villa exposed a huge Enzo Fernandez problem to Manchester City

Manchester City suffered their first defeat of the 2026/27 Premier League season, losing valuable ground over reigning champions and perennial title rivals Arsenal with a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa.

There were a few disappointing performances in the game, but the worst of the worst has to be Enzo Fernandez. While he did create some chances on the ball and was crisp as ever as a passer, the real problem is how he played defensively.

The Premier League is shifting more from possession football to transition football, which is almost fitting with Pep Guardiola walking away from the game for a sabbatical, and Man City got exposed by that against Nicolas Jackson and a great Aston Villa side in transition.

Enzo was horrendous defensively. He struggled badly as the main anchoring point for this team, and he was so bad that he did not even record a tackle or interception in the game. Enzo had no defensive involvements at all.

Stats like tackles and interceptions aren’t the be all, end all, but it is shocking for a nine digit signing and a player of Enzo’s caliber to have delivered this little to help his team as the No. 6.

But Chelsea fans will point out to the Manchester City faithful that this was the case at Stamford Bridge, too. Enzo got shielded a lot by playing next to the best pure defensive midfielder in the world in Moises Caicedo, who did all the dirty work so Enzo could focus on goals and passing.

Even with Argentina, Enzo gets to play with guys like Alexis Mac Allister and Leandro Paredes who like being the pitbulls. Manchester City have Elliot Anderson, but that’s really it. And he’s more of an energizer than a destroyer. Man City are going to have to figure out this Enzo problem, or they are going to lose more games with defensive breakdowns.

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