Former Newcastle United and England striker Alan Shearer has waxed lyrical about Mason Mount, Christian Pulisic and Kai Havertz following their starring roles in Chelsea's 4-1 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday.
After suffering a shock 5-2 home defeat at the hands of West Bromwich Albion last weekend, the Blues responded in perfect fashion to record their biggest win of the Thomas Tuchel era so far.
Pulisic netted a brace whilst Kurt Zouma and Havertz also got themselves amongst the goals to move Chelsea back into the top-four, although they have since been replaced in the coveted UEFA Champions League spots by West Ham United, who defeated Leicester City 3-2 at the London Stadium on Sunday.
Although scoring masses of goals has been a difficulty for Chelsea under Tuchel, the German, who will be hoping to see his side progress to the semi-finals of the Champions League when they face FC Porto in the second-leg of their quarter-final tomorrow evening, opted to leave an out-and-out striker out of his starting line-up against Palace, with Timo Werner, Olivier Giroud and Tammy Abraham all having to settle for places on the bench.
Instead, the German opted to deploy Havertz in the false nine position with Mount and Pulisic providing support from behind. In truth, it was a masterstroke decision from Tuchel, as the trio caused endless problems, and for Shearer it was a "very clever" selection choice by the former Paris Saint-Germain chief.
"I thought it was a very clever team selection to not play Giroud or Abraham but instead play Havertz, Pulisic and Mount, who like to drop deep, whereas the two big centre-forwards might want to go up and scrap against the two big centre-halves [Cheikhou] Kouyate and [Gary] Cahill," Shearer told BBC Sport.
"And those three today were just too good for those two because they didn’t want to come out, they didn’t want to go and mark one of them because if they had of then they leave the space in behind and that caused them problems.
"They created chance after chance. Havertz, who played very well today and scored one, had an assist, probably should’ve scored another couple of goals.
"As I said it was a constant, a defender just didn’t want to come out and close them down. He [Mount] was clever in everything he did as well.
"Second half it didn’t change… it’s all from those players dropping deep and getting the ball and as I said they were just too good for them. It was a superb performance from Chelsea, particularly going forward."
With Mount, Pulisic and Havertz having all linked up so well and proved to be devastating in attack, it could be worrying news for Olivier Giroud, Tammy Abraham and Timo Werner in their hopes of getting regular minutes in their preferred position.
Despite joining the Blues in a big-money deal from RB Leipzig last summer, Werner has failed to live up to expectations, scoring just ten goals in 41 appearances.
With the German continuing to misfire and Mount, Havertz and Pulisic showing signs of life, all eyes will be on Tuchel's decision making in the next few matches to see how his forward line looks.
