Ben Chilwell made a good impression on his debut for Chelsea in the 2020/21 Premier League. As a left back, he contributed one goal and an assist in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Crystal Palace.
Quoting Opta, Chilwell became the third player after Deco and Alvaro Morata to score and assist in the debut match for the Blues. His impressive performance also made the former Leicester City player selected as the man of the match.
Not only that, Chilwell also has the same good defensive and attacking attributes. With a relatively young age among the available left-backs, his performance from year to year is showing improvement. For this, Chelsea hopes a lot from him.
In five seasons defending Leicester in the Premier League, for example, he scored a total of four goals and 10 assists. Of these, the increase occurred in the last two seasons (scoring three goals and eight assists).
Peter Smith, a Sky Sports journalist, said that Chilwell was the busiest player in the match against Crystal Palace. The 23-year-old defender has recorded 11 crosses and three interceptions, the highest among other players. For his contribution, Frank Lampard as the coach did not hesitate to give praise.
“I think Ben Chilwell has made a fantastic contribution in every way. He scored goals, made assists and he was always ready to join this team, “said Lampard as quoted by the club’s official website.
“He helps attack but has the capacity to retreat when it comes to defending, has good quality with the ball and he is a great player,” he continued.
Seeing his appearance, the dowry worth 50 million euros that the Blues poured out to bring him to Stamford Bridge was worth it. Even though he has just played one game, his game gives hope of the left-back void that has hit Chelsea in the past few seasons.
Since Ashley Cole left in 2014, this London team has not had a left-back of equal quality. Marcos Alonso and Emerson often appear odd. Indeed, there is Cesar Azpilicueta who can be deployed on the left side of the defense. But the Spanish player’s natural position is at right-back.
If you are able to appear consistent, Chelsea’s need for this position can be resolved this season. Moreover, the player admitted to getting advice from Ashley Cole when he decided to join Chelsea.
“He said ‘hard work’. “It sounds cliché, but he said that the supporters here [Chelsea] like the players who work hard and fight tooth and nail for this shirt and give everything for the club,” said Chilwell as quoted by Metro.
Compared to the new players Chelsea has this season, one other advantage that Chilwell has that players like Timo Werner and Kai Harvetz don’t have is his experience playing in the Premier League.
This certainly makes Chilwell not need much time to adapt to the atmosphere of the Premier League. Werner and Harvetz, who are in a more attacking position, have not been able to score in four games in the Premier League, something Chilwell did in spite of his left-back position.
It will be interesting to see how Ben Chilwell will compete with Emerson and Marcos Alonso at the left back position in Chelsea’s starting line-up. Will Chilwell be one of the best transfer for Chelsea this season?
ASL
