Chelsea’s new manager Graham Potter will be standing in his first Premier League in charge of the Blues as they take on Crystal Palace. Ahead of the game, Potter addressed several issues one of which was wing-back Ben Chilwell’s role in the team. Chilwell returned on the final match-day of the last season, after recovering from a cruciate ligament injury which had kept him out for almost the entire season.
His absence did a huge damage to Chelsea as they struggled to cope with it. As a result, they went ahead and splashed a whopping £60 million to bring in Brighton’s versatile left-back Marc Cucurella to provide backup as well as push Chilwell for the starting spot. The Spaniard has kept the England international out of the starting line-up on five occasions so far delivering some lightning performances.
Graham Potter says Chilwell is an intelligent as well as important player to his set-up
Ben Chilwell was used by Chelsea’s former boss Thomas Tuchel in six outings, however giving only 193 minutes in total to the left-wing-back. While the former Leicester player may have recovered from his cruciate ligament injury, he still needs some time to get back into the fold, insisted Tuchel. Moreover, Cucurella’s brilliant displays further kept Chilwell away from the starting line-up.
Chilwell made a return to Gareth Southgate’s England squad as the Three Lions faced Italy and Germany in the Nations League. However, no minutes were made available for him to grace the pitch for his country. It certainly hindered is fight to make it to Qatar for the FIFA World Cup with England, as Southgate picked Manchester United’s Luke Shaw in that position and has often deployed right-back Kieran Trippier in a makeshift role as well.
The Chelsea left-back needs more minutes under his belt if he is to seriously make his case for Qatar. His bid for regular game time now rests in the hands of Graham Potter, who having previously worked with Cucurella would certainly favour the former Brighton man. But the Blues’ manager has spoken about Chilwell’s role in his system further labelling the 25-year-old an “important player”. Speaking in his pre-match presser ahead of the Palace game, Potter said:
“I’ve been really impressed with him [Ben Chilwell], his attitude has been fantastic. Of course, it’s frustrating not to play, but he’s intelligent enough to know he’s had a long injury and it’s about step by step getting to his full fitness. He played a behind-closed-doors game for us, 90 minutes.
“I’ve no doubt about him physically, it’s just for him to be ready to play. I’m sure he will. He’s an important member of the team, that’s how I see it. I can’t make any comment about anything else outside of Chelsea, but for us he’s an important player.”
Graham Potter looks impressed with his left-back after his display in that behind-closed-doors friendly against his former side Brighton & Hove Albion. That has evidently paved the way for Chilwell to get back into the starting line-up, which he hopes to against Crystal Palace. On the other hand, Cucurella isn’t slowing down and would prove to be a tumbling block in the road of Chilwell. It now remains to be seen how Graham Potter lines-up his Chelsea team in his first Premier League game in charge of the club.