£200m midfield in question after powerful performance from new duo – box to box dominance from Caicedo | OneFootball

Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo had a great game against Aston Villa today.

The open, high tempo game suited him, and he was able to make a real impact in the middle.

He made the most passes into the final third of anyone on the pitch and took 102 touches, so his game in possession was good too. But what really stands out was his game leading 12 of 14 duels won. We’ve seen far too many games this season where he’s been a step off it, arriving a fraction of a second late and losing out. Today he was first to everything and gave us what we thought we’d be getting from him all year.

He made 5 tackles, 2 clearances, and Villa were forced to foul him 4 times. It really was an eye catching display, and prompted a question after the game for Mauricio Pochettino.

Another big day in the double pivot

It was further evidence that Caicedo really looks at his best when partnered with Conor Gallagher in a double pivot, deep lying midfield rather than when alongside Enzo Fernandez.

Fernandez will miss the rest of this season, so we’ll see this pair a lot in the remaining games. There are almost no other options for Pochettino.

That’s quite worrying for Chelsea – it’s not clear what they’re going to have to do with Enzo if these two start getting good results working together. There are increasing numbers of people saying an Enzo-Caicedo duo just won’t work, and that’s after more than £200m spent on them.

The coach is going to have to come up with something clever over the summer. Enzo leaves big spaces for Caicedo to fill, and he’s often left stranded. The double team with Gallagher was just overwhelming for Villa as they tired, and we look forward to seeing more of it.