Chelsea feel transfer vindication as Estevao stars on 'special' night | OneFootball

Blues get glimpse into future as young stars show exciting potential in Champions League rout

Your matchday briefing on Chelsea, featuring team news and expert analysis from Dom Smith

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Tosin Adarabioyo was being asked about life as Chelsea’s oldest outfield player on Tuesday when he protested that he is, in fact, still relatively young at 28.

On a night when the customary red card for once did not go to Chelsea, the Blues found their groove in the Champions League.

As the rain kept cascading down at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s youngsters matured in real time, creating chances at will and eventually mauling Ajax 5-1.

It was their biggest victory in the Champions League since winning 6-0 in 2017 against Qarabag, who just so happen to be their very next opponents in the league phase.

Chelsea became the first team in Champions League history to have three teenage scorers as they beat Ajax at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Estevao Willian (18), Marc Guiu (19) and Tyrique George (19) were all on the scoresheet against Ajax, and that made Chelsea the first team in Champions League history to produce three teenage goalscorers in a single game. No English club had previously achieved that feat in any competition since the formation of the Premier League in 1992-93.

Maresca, unsurprisingly, declared himself “very proud” and called it “a special night for the club, for the young players”.

“We have so many young players,” he said. “Already, last season, we were the youngest squad in the history of the Premier League, so this season we continue in the same way. It is the strategy of the club.”

Nights like this give that recruitment strategy, and the obsession for young players with sky-high long-term potential, a nod of approval.

Maresca said he felt lucky to be the manager of 18-year-old Estevao, and you just knew that he really meant it. When they hit fifth or sixth gear, Chelsea’s youngsters are quite some spectacle.

The starting line-up Maresca put out was the youngest any manager has named in the Champions League this season, and the second-youngest by an English team in the competition’s history, at an average age of just 22 years and 163 days.

After a raft of substitutions in the second half against Ajax, the average age of a Chelsea player who finished the match was a mere 20.6 years of age.

Cole Palmer embraces Estevao after the Ajax win

Getty Images

That included Reggie Walsh, Maresca’s favourite from Chelsea’s esteemed academy, becoming the club's youngest-ever Champions League player at 17 years and two days old.

It must be noted - if it were not obvious from their shoddy display - that Ajax are not what they were. They went down to ten men after 17 minutes and do not boast anything like the promising young talents present when they drew 4-4 at Stamford Bridge in November 2019 under Erik ten Hag.

Chelsea, though, were without the suspended Joao Pedro, injured Cole Palmer, and had made ten changes from the weekend win at Nottingham Forest.

They deserved credit for another clinical display in front of goal on an evening that offered a reminder, in case anyone had forgotten, of quite how young this fledgling team is.

It was also a night when everything seemed to go right for Chelsea, when records kept tumbling for Maresca’s young side. That was best epitomised by Marc Guiu, who, in scoring the opener, became the club’s youngest-ever Champions League scorer aged 19 years and 291 days old. He took the record off Reece James, who had broken it by netting the equaliser in that 4-4 instant classic the last time Ajax visited the Bridge.

Guiu held the record for all of 33 minutes, before 18-year-old Estevao nervelessly dispatched Chelsea’s second penalty of the night.

It was just Guiu’s luck that the man who replaced him, Tyrique George, should find the net three minutes after coming on and bump Guiu down to third on the list.

Not content with outdoing Ajax, Chelsea’s youngsters were outdoing each other.

Are the kids surprising you with what they are trying to do and managing to do in games? This was the final question asked of Maresca as he faced the media after Chelsea's handsome win.

“I work with them every day,” came the reply. “I know what they can do.”