Chelsea's great unknown over 'special' Estevao after Liverpool winner | OneFootball

Sky is the limit for Brazilian wonderkid as excitement builds around 18-year-old who looks set to become a superstar

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Estevao Willian wore the broadest smile in west London. His game-changing impact off the bench against Stamford Bridge on Saturday culminated in his 95th-minute winner, which downed champions Liverpool and sent his manager Enzo Maresca sprinting the length of the touchline.

For the first time since netting for Palmeiras against the club he was already due to join after the Club World Cup, Estevao scored in a game involving Chelsea on Saturday. His first for the Blues was the biggest moment of his fledgling career, and a potential catalyst for what is already shaping up to be a breakthrough season for the 18-year-old.

It was tangible in the aftermath of Chelsea’s breathtaking 2-1 win over Liverpool, by scrolling through social media, tuning into the radio phone-ins, reading the reports, that Estevao is a player many people across the football world wants to see succeed.

Long before his pre-agreed move this summer from Palmeiras to Chelsea for £29million plus up to £15m in add-ons, he had people talking about him - tipping him for the top.

Estevao scored at the back post to give Chelsea a 2-1 win over Liverpool

Action Images via Reuters

Before his introduction against Liverpool as a 75th-minute substitute, Chelsea supporters had already begun to understand what the fuss was about, why their club had moved to pluck him from the Brazilian league before he was even old enough to legally join them.

In August’s 5-1 win at West Ham, thrust into the starting line-up just eight minutes before kick-off because of an unexpected flare up of Cole Palmer’s groin injury in the warm-up, Estevao became the youngest player ever to assist a Premier League goal for Chelsea.

His crowning act on Saturday, loitering at the back post, escaping the attention of Andy Robertson and lifting the mood around the club by converting Marc Cucurella’s cross for the winner, only served to ingratiate him further with a fanbase that was already all in on the hype train.

When Anthony Taylor blew the full-time whistle, Palmer, donning a garish green puffer jacket, leapt from the bench and embraced Estevao, Chelsea’s match-winner and man of the moment. Joao Pedro did the same, lifting Estevao aloft and celebrating with his compatriot, and the teenager then went round each and every member of Maresca’s coaching staff and entourage, basking in the moment, hugging them all, his grin only widening.

It has sometimes felt as though Maresca has struggled to bond with the match-going Chelsea supporters, but his dart down the touchline will no doubt have helped forge one. And the fact that of all players it was Estevao, the teenage starlet, who secured Chelsea’s greatest win since hammering Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup final was all the more lifting of the general mood at a club where positivity had been in short supply after a string of poor performances and even poorer results since the September international break.

Estevao has made a quick impact at Chelsea after moving from Palmeiras in the summer

Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Already, Estevao is a quite fantastic young winger. Quite how good he can become is the great unknown but a tantalising source of fascination, particularly for Chelsea fans.

The skinny winger could become a No10 in future, Maresca has said, but would need to follow in Palmer’s footsteps and remain a wide player until he has bulked out. A sensational dribbler, his centre of gravity is so low that trying to stop him when in full flow seems a fool’s errand. Once he entered the fray on Saturday, for Liverpool’s defenders it certainly was.

His intentions whenever he receives the ball are obvious and undisguised. He wants to carry it as far as he can, ducking and weaving the challenges, making things happen, forcing the issue. Against Liverpool, he did. It was a cameo that he turned into a leading role.

Estevao is making things happen with an efficiency expected from players far more experienced. He has the highest expected assists value per 90 minutes of any players in the Premier League this season, and the highest tally for expected goals plus expected assists too. Even if he does lose the ball at times, or pick the wrong option at others, Maresca is seeing real returns from handing Estevao the platform to perform.

“For an 18-year-old, he's a special talent and could develop into a really top player,” said former England captain Wayne Rooney on Match of the Day on Saturday.

Erling Haaland posted on social media after watching the Liverpool game, describing the Brazil international as a “wonderkid”, and Estevao is now the youngest Brazilian ever to score a winning goal in the Premier League.

“I almost fell over into the fans, I am so happy,” he said afterwards. He’s probably still on cloud nine even now.