New Year Day drama! Chelsea sacks Maresca, City drops points

Premier League New Year's shocks 2026: Chelsea sack Maresca, Sunderland hold Man City 0-0, Liverpool draw Leeds 0-0, Tottenham 0-0 Brentford.

Enzo Maresca has left his role at Chelsea following "untenable" situations; the club is now actively looking for his replacement. (Photo credit: BBC)

January 1st, 2026 came with lots of shocks in different forms. Is this an indication that we’re in for a treat in the world of football in the new year?

We woke up to the news of the tension between Enzo Maresca and his employers; it all unravelled quickly as the consortium that owns the club put out a statement that the World Champions have parted ways with the Italian.

There’s a lot to unpack from this bewildering situation. Results haven’t been pretty; however, you cannot pin this development on their fifth position. The quality in their squad lacks experience, and, when the chips are down, it’s unfair to blame the manager in that regard.

Word on the street is that Maresca has inundated the club hierarchy with his interest in the Manchester City job, which doesn’t sit well with everyone at the top. It has been the worst-kept secret that Maresca doesn’t mind replacing his former boss at Manchester City should the Spaniard call it quits.

On to other surprises of day 1 of 2026. Manchester City knew what they had to do to restore the points gap between them and Arsenal to just two; however, Granit Xhaka and everyone at Sunderland said no. You wouldn’t believe it’s the same Sunderland that is missing seven players to injury and AFCON.

Pep Guardiola had the luxury of having Ballon d’Or winner Rodri and Belgium winger Jeremy Doku on the bench, while the Black Cats were missing lots of first-team players, including former Arsenal academy defender Jimmy Ballard.

After a goalless first half, with Rodri and Doku coming on in the second half, you sensed the former champions would rise to the occasion, but Sunderland stood firm to maintain their record of not losing at home this season, something they keep with Arsenal.

Beyond Arsenal celebrating a four-point advantage over Manchester City at the top of the log, Liverpool also provided some shock on New Year’s Day. Daniel Farke seems to have thrown the game at Anfield, ringing huge changes, including sitting down Dominic Calvert-Lewin against Liverpool.

Liverpool needed a win to close the gap between them and Aston Villa to four points while creating a strong gap between them and Chelsea, but the champions could only manage a goalless draw, with substitute Calvert Lewin seeing his goal ruled correctly offside.

Tottenham drew at Brentford, playing out their first goalless draw in four years. 137 games in total between their last barren draw, and incidentally, it was at Brentford four years ago. There’s an incident involving Christian Romero, which could have been a red card after bringing down Igor Thiago; however, the VAR deemed it accidental. Expect everyone at Brentford to wail about that all weekend.