José Mourinho said prior to this game that Chelsea’s youth team, despite winning the FA Youth Cup and Uefa Youth League, should look to Ruben Loftus-Cheek as their biggest title of the season. The reason being that the midfielder, 19, has come up through the ranks, made his debut in the Champions League in December, and last weekend against Liverpool made his first start in the Premier League.
Gary Neville said he was impressed with the physicality of Loftus-Cheek in that 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, although he glossed over the fact that he was taken off after an hour as Liverpool began to get a foothold in midfield.
But if Loftus-Cheek’s team-mates in the youth side should look to him, it is to be hoped Loftus-Cheek is not looking to those who have gone before him. Names such as Ryan Bertrand and Josh McEachran spring to mind as two youth players who have promised much but were deemed not up to the required standard.
Bertrand is at Southampton, having made the move permanent in February, at least having played and won the Champions League in 2012 while at Chelsea. McEachran, richly feted once upon a time, but now on loan at Vitesse, is doomed, surely, never to be a first-team player under Mourinho. He and Bertrand have been barged to one side by older, more experienced and illustrious players bought in by the manager.
Yet Loftus-Cheek now finds himself given a chance. The scrutiny is intense and he knows he will not be given much time. Mourinho was talking before the match about the process of sending Chelsea players away – 26 players are on loan at the moment – but at least Loftus-Cheek was not mentioned as one of those he has in mind to farm out next season.
His role here was on the right of Nemanja Matic, with licence to get forward more frequently than the Serb but he was needed to screen in front of John Terry and Gary Cahill for the first 15 minutes, as West Bromwich got on the front foot. Unfortunately for him the first part of the game appeared to pass him by, up to and including the moment Saido Berahino gave the hosts the lead. As the forward spun round to shoot from 22 yards, Loftus-Cheekwas tracking back but too far away to put in a challenge. Maybe he was unsure of his footing. After six minutes he had shaped to shoot, slipped, and the ball trundled harmlessly away. He was on his backside again shortly after the goal, going in with two feet on Berahino. It was a desperate challenge, deserving of a yellow card. It was the last time the referee Mike Jones showed any sympathy to a Chelsea player.
To Loftus-Cheek’s credit he stayed out of the fracas that saw Diego Costa bumping his way around the West Bromwich defence and which inadvertently led to Cesc Fàbregas, 20 yards away, wanting to get involved as well. It was his chip on to Chris Brunt’s head that resulted in the Spain international’s red card.
Shorn of a team-mate, Loftus-Cheek’s life became harder, as the channels through to the Chelsea penalty area opened up. He began to see more of the Albion midfield than he would have liked. With the prospect of being overwhelmed, he may then have realised what life would be like against Manchester City or Real Madrid next season. Neville had evoked that very idea when he said he thought Matic needed a partner, other than Fàbregas, in the big games next season. Fàbregas will be suspended at the start of next season, which could be the silver lining for Loftus-Cheek from this difficult game made harder by Berahino’s penalty and effectively finished by Brunt’s hammer shot inside the left-hand post.
But Mourinho would not have given Loftus-Cheek consecutive starts in the league if he had not seen something he liked and one first-half dribble and jink through midfield gave a glimpse of what he likes to do when given some space.
His short passing was tidy but smacked of someone inclined to look for the easy ball out. Meanwhile his team‑mates from the youth side watched on from the bench. Nathan Aké, who came on for the final 17 minutes, and Isaiah Brown, who managed 11 minutes were presumably as delighted as their friend, but the goalkeeper Jamal Blackman will have to wait another day for his debut.
Yet having got this close to the first team, Loftus-Cheek and his young team‑mates will no doubt be keeping a nervous eye on Chelsea’s incomings from the transfer market this summer. After this performance, some of the senior players will too.
