Teenager already key Chelsea player – his injury may have cost Blues Champions League place | OneFootball

Estevao Willian’s first season at Chelsea has been a huge success, and in fact the team has really missed him at times.

This was supposed to be a season where we worked Estevao Willian into the picture slowly at Chelsea, but in recent weeks it’s felt like he’s a key player. Our last two games have seen us fail to put away Leeds and Burnley in games where we led.

Against Leeds, Estevao started and was taken off with the Blues 2-0 up. We ended up drawing 2-2. Against Burnley on Saturday, the Brazilian wasn’t fit to start. Without him, we toiled miserably in attack for large parts of the game, and didn’t add to the early goal we scored. It was a game crying out for his skill, invention and eye for goal.

Estevao already a key player, not a super sub or development project

Estevao William frustrated by Hull. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

With Cole Palmer still struggling for solid form, Jamie Gittens injured and Alejandro Garnacho not impressing, Estevao has become our second best winger after Pedro Neto. While not as consistent or defensively reliable as the Portuguese, his individual skills make him more of the profile you’d want to get a goal when you really need one.

It was notable on Saturday that, when looking for a second goal, manager Liam Rosenior’s attacking options on the bench were Liam Delap and Alejandro Garnacho, with two league goals between them this season.

In other news…

Chelsea are proving better against teams who have more of the ball, and the stats show it pretty starkly. It’s a problem Liam Rosenior needs to fix.

Reece James has developed as a leader on and off the pitch, and Omari Kellyman has spoken about how inspired he’s been by the captain.

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here: