Chelsea return to motion on Saturday night time, with a fourth consecutive London derby to start the Premier League season, taking up West London rivals Brentford.
If Enzo Maresca‘s aspect are going to make it three wins in a row, they will have to take action with out Cole Palmer.
The Blues’ talisman exacerbated a groin damage in the course of the warm-up forward of the match in opposition to West Ham, withdrawing from that sport on the final minute, subsequently sitting out the victory over Fulham, in addition to England’s two World Cup qualifiers.
Thus, Palmer is extremely unlikely to function on the Gtech Neighborhood Stadium, so which of Chelsea’s array of attacking superstars is best-equipped to fill his void, and who might be poised to make their debut for the membership?
Alejandro Garnacho: Chelsea debut incoming?
A fortnight in the past, in a deal that had been anticipated for a lot of months, Alejandro Garnacho lastly accomplished his £40m transfer from Manchester United to Chelsea.
The Argentine worldwide had been advised to discover a new membership by Rúben Amorim earlier than final season had even concluded, spending the summer time as a part of Man United’s notorious bomb squad, earlier than belatedly finalising the change to Stamford Bridge within the remaining few days of the window.
Nonetheless, it stays to be seen how prepared the 21-year-old is to contribute.
He didn’t function in any respect for Manchester United throughout pre-season, not even coaching with the principle group of gamers, which means that it is now 115 days since he final performed a match, aggressive or in any other case, this the Europa League Closing defeat to Tottenham, seeing 19 minutes off the bench in Bilbao.
Garnacho has had a fortnight at Cobham to stand up to hurry, having not been referred to as up by Argentina, however is unquestionably unlikely to be thrown in from the beginning at Brentford on Saturday night time, so which of Chelsea’s different younger sensations is best-placed to take up the artistic mantle in Palmer’s continued absence?
Chelsea teen destined to succeed in Palmer’s degree
In a summer time of many signings, Chelsea paying £29m for Estêvão Willian might show to be the discount of the window, even when the deal does attain £52m, if all of the add-ons are triggered.
Through the summer time, supporters got an amuse bouche of what was to return when {the teenager} scored this beautiful equaliser for Palmeiras in opposition to his future employers in the course of the Membership World Cup quarter-finals in Philadelphia.
Since swapping São Paulo for Stamford Bridge, Estêvão has rapidly been in a position to set up himself as a key determine in Maresca’s aspect, scoring throughout a pre-season pleasant in opposition to Bayer Leverkusen, beginning their final two Premier League fixtures.
The desk beneath underlines his significance, with the apparent caveat that it is solely a small pattern measurement.
Estêvão 2025/26 PL stats |
||
---|---|---|
Stats |
Estêvão |
Chelsea rank |
Minutes |
180 |
ninth |
Anticipated objectives |
1 |
third |
Anticipated assists |
0.9 |
2nd |
Photographs |
3 |
4th |
Photographs on the right track |
2 |
2nd |
Shot-creating actions |
5 |
4th |
Objective-creating actions |
2 |
1st |
Massive probabilities created |
1 |
third |
Massive probabilities missed |
1 |
1st |
Profitable dribbles per 90 |
2.7 |
1st |
Progressive carries |
7 |
2nd |
Carries into the world |
6 |
1st |
Touches within the space |
13 |
1st |
through FBref.com and SofaScore |
Because the desk paperwork, regardless of being but to register a objective or an help in his burgeoning Premier League profession, Estêvão has definitely contributed in a Chelsea shirt up to now, ranked significantly extremely by way of pictures, probabilities created and dribbling, registering each probably the most carries into the opposition penalty space, in addition to probably the most touches within the attacking field.
When final season’s statistics, Palmer was out on his personal for the overwhelming majority of attacking metrics, away from all of his teammates, however Estêvão is displaying early indicators of having the ability to match the Englishman.
Jacek Kulig of Soccer Expertise Scout has definitely been impressed, asserting that he has a “big future forward”, whereas Brazil’s all-time report goalscorer Neymar believes the “huge expertise” is “surging in Brazilian soccer”, including “I feel he shall be a genius”.
The 18-year-old has additionally been in comparison with a distinct Brazilian famous person, with teammate João Pedro exclaiming “taking part in for Brazil and Chelsea at 18, oh my God”, earlier than forecasting that “he’s going to be like Vinícius Júnior.”
Thus, within the absence of Palmer, this might be Estêvão’s crew, for the following few weeks not less than, and it will shock nobody if he bagged his first objective in Blue at Brentford this weekend.