Mateo Kovacic is Chelsea's Player of the Season.
That's the view of Arsenal legend and pundit Ian Wright.
The Croatia international was singled out for praise following the Blues' 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday afternoon as the former striker name dropped the midfielder ahead of leading scorer Tammy Abraham.
"Giroud had a very good game. I have to give a special mention to Kovacic as well because I think he’s been Chelsea’s player of the season so far," Wright said on Match of the Day.
Kovacic split opinions amongst Chelsea supporters as well as the media whilst on loan from Real Madrid last season as his lack of goals and assists from midfield were somewhat of a concern.
Despite inconsistent form under Maurizio Sarri as well as the Blues' transfer ban this summer, Kovacic's deal was made permanent and he is proving that decision was correct.
Wright then went on to discuss Olivier Giroud's impact against Spurs.
The France international was handed his first start for Chelsea since November and marked the occasion with the opening goal and Wright feels the targetman was the difference between the two teams.
"But what Jose Mourinho has said that he hasn’t got, in respects to a striker, people wanting to get forward and supporting, Chelsea had that today and they had it in abundance.
"Giroud, when the ball is going up to him, you know it’s going to stick.
"Chelsea’s problem for me is that they've been doing a lot of sideways passing, making defenders have to think, that's what they weren't doing but now they've got people that want to run off the ball.
"Once it went up to Giroud, they knew something was going to happen.
"Frank is rightly absolutely delighted because they haven’t been putting games away but they did today."
