It does not quite mask Chelsea’s failures this season but being out of the Premier League reckoning has at least allowed Guus Hiddink the opportunity to blood new talent. They finished Saturday’s filleting of Aston Villa with three debutants on the pitch and another young player completing his first full league game. A silver lining has appeared on an otherwise moody grey horizon.
In the grand scheme of this campaign it is worth little more than a footnote but who knows how far Matt Miazga, Jake Clarke-Salter, both making their debuts, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek can go towards re-establishing Chelsea as one of the continent’s best in future seasons. Their obliging opponents did not provide much of a test but it was valuable experience nonetheless.
And that is before mentioning the third debutant, Alexandre Pato, who finally appeared as a first-half substitute for Loïc Rémy 63 days after signing on loan from Corinthians in January. Maybe the long wait was worth it, Pato scoring Chelsea’s second goal from a penalty that he won himself.
The Brazilian also played a part in the lead-up to Chelsea’s other three and looked fresh having undergone an individual training programme to reach an acceptable level of fitness. Hiddink admitted he was tempted to play the 26-year-old earlier but was concerned he “would have been killed” by a defence with more hunger and desire than Villa’s horror show.
Loftus-Cheek, scorer of the opener, impressed at No10 before being moved to the left when Oscar was introduced at half-time. The academy product flagged late on but extending him for the entire game was another important step, according to Hiddink. “He was used to being substituted after an hour,” the interim manager said. “But on purpose we let him go to suffer for a little bit. He also needed the experience of 90 minutes. Although it’s not the highest tempo game, he had to experience it. He had a little bit of cramp and I said ‘Come on, it’s good for you.’”
Miazga did not have much bother in handling Rudy Gestede but Hiddink preached caution, suggesting it is hard to read too much into the American defender’s ability until he deals with a “war”.
“Miazga had a rather comfortable game, even though it’s not easy against Gestede. He did well. He showed he has the potential but this was not the most tough game. You have to consider as well when a good war is going on how you cope with that but it was a good first step up for him.”
Adapting to the Premier League, having only experienced Major League Soccer before, will take some time, though. “He’s coming from a league where it’s more naive than the Premier League,” Hiddink added. “He has to get used to a bit more freedom to attackers from referees – which I like – but he has to cope with that where in other leagues a referee might give a free-kick. But he’s young, he looks a bit older than what he is.”
The youngest of the bunch, Clarke-Salter showed a couple of confident touches, too, during his cameo and is set to be given further chances in the final six games.
A thesaurus is required to say something new about Villa, for most words to describe their shambles have already been used. This was Eric Black’s first game in temporary charge but the team remain a desperate rabble who have, with only a couple of exceptions, long thrown in the towel. Black maintains a desire to “get the fans back on side” but is reluctant to drop senior figures that are being greeted with resentment by justifiably disgusted supporters in favour of younger players.
Understandably he is protective of playing the kids, concerned it would scar their careers for life. “It’s a dilemma,” said Black, who has, it should be noted, been thrust into an unfortunate position. “Are the young players ready to play in that atmosphere? Do we want to throw them into the lurch? It’s sometimes not necessarily the best thing for young players.
“The club are facing difficulties at the moment and are trying to rectify matters, and we will continue to be as professional as we can and try to get the fans back on side in some way.”
Man of the match Alexandre Pato (Chelsea)
