Garnacho’s superb attacking stats show how he’s nailed down starting spot for Maresca | OneFootball

Chelsea are now eleven games into the new season, and it feels like Enzo Maresca has finally settled on a preferred team.

The summer signings are integrated, the majority of players are back from injury and up to speed, and the manager is finally picking from an (almost) full deck of cards.

Garnacho’s effective attacking stats bolster his defensive ability

That has become clear in his decisions on the wing – despite having flirted with a few different setups, the coach has now settled on playing Alejandro Garnacho on the left and Pedro Neto on the right. Estevao Willian can then come on later in games.

Neto was a favourite from last year, but Garnacho has had to earn his place. The stats you can see above show how he’s managed to do it. He’s moving the ball forward and using it well in the final third.

All of those are important attacking metrics, but it feels like his work rate and defensive application are actually what’s swinging it.

That’s what Maresca has mentioned repeatedly in interviews, and seems to be what he values in his wide men -it’s a similar story with Neto on the other side. For all of Estevao’s ridiculous ability, it’s in these areas he will have to improve if he wants to be a regular starter.

In other news…

John Terry has been on Jon Obi Mikel’s podcast, where he talked about Joao Pedro and said that the striker has been impressing in training with the Blues. We just need to see a little more of that on the pitch now…

Chelsea once had two of the greatest G/A merchants and bone fide Premier League legends on their books. Mo Salah and Kevin de Bruyne went on to make their names elsewhere – but on the same podcast Terry defended the decision to let them go.