Chelsea are within touching distance of the Premier League’s top seven and European qualification thanks to Thursday evening’s London derby victory over Tottenham Hotspur.
The Blues came into the game severely depleted, with manager Mauricio Pochettino having just 11 first-team players available to him. But it was a polished, potentially even coming of age display from the young team, aided by a decidedly poor Tottenham side limping towards the season’s finish line.
Trevoh Chalobah opened the scoring in the first half, with Nicolas Jackson doubling that lead to make it a more comfortable margin into the final 20 minutes.
These are Chelsea’s best and worst players from the game according to90min‘s player ratings.
Marc Cucurella: 8/10
The former Brighton man thrived in a role that saw him regularly moving into midfield as an inverted full-back. He gave Brennan Johnson nothing all evening, even sneakily blocking him to help make the space for Chalobah’s opener, and was instrumental in winning the ball back all over the pitch. Overall, it was among his best performances from the club.
Honourable mention
Trevoh Chalobah: 8/10
Chalobah had to wait two years for his goal, looping the ball masterfully into the far corner with a powerful header. But it wasn’t just in an attacking sense that he stood up to be counted, making a number of important clearances in his own box to help preserve the clean sheet.
Noni Madueke: 6/10
The winger certainly didn’t lack ambition in facing up and trying to take on Emerson Royal, but his final pass lacked consistent quality. On one occasion, he did the hard work by beating his marker around the outside but the move petered out because he couldn’t get he ball across the box before running out of room. This wasn’t a bad performance by any means.
Dishonourable mention
Cole Palmer: 6/10
Given that he’s carried Chelsea all season, it’s fair that Palmer can afford a quieter evening once in a while, especially on a night where so many others in blue shirts did step up. It could have still been very easily different had his free-kick been an inch or two lower and hit the net rather than the bar. As it happens, that was what actually created the second Chelsea goal for Jackson anyway.
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