Quite a few Chelsea supporters on social media appreciated one moment of Ross Barkley’s display against Norwich City last weekend.
By the time Barkley was called into action on Saturday, the Blues had already fired five past their feeble opponents, who were also down to ten men.
Goals from Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Reece James in the first half were followed up by Ben Chilwell’s third of the season.
Canaries centre-back Ben Gibson received a second yellow card, just moments after Max Aarons inadvertently turned one into his own net.
All of this was achieved before Barkley had even been substituted on by Thomas Tuchel.
Penalty persistence
In the final flourishes of the match, Chelsea earned a penalty for handball.
With Jorginho off the field, Mount took the spot-kick responsibilities upon himself.
Tim Krul saved the midfielder’s effort, yet the Dutchman’s denial was done in vain after both his feet were planted in front of the goal line.
Mount stepped up to try his luck again, but only after one eagle-eyed Chelsea fan spotted Barkley asking to have the subsequent shot from 12-yards.
Followers of the Blues valued this act of confidence from the former England international.
Here’s how they reacted on Twitter:
He’s has all the right to ask for it, especially after Mount missed the first one.
— Elite Futurist (@_Rid1_) October 23, 2021
He has every right to ask for it after Mount missed the first. The second was poor as well. For those on about a hattrick, he had one goal at this point,relax.
— Paul Adedoyin (@ThegentlePaul) October 24, 2021
It’s important to note Barkley has an impeccable PK record for Chelsea.
Haha.
— Shubham. (@_ShuBhamCFC) October 23, 2021
But on the other side this is good mate. This is level of competition we need.
Everybody was desperate to get goals, Ziyech, Rubes and Barkley. Mason also desperately wanted that hat trick.
Breakthrough in mentality under TT. 👊🏻
In fairness he’s better than Mount at pens. Both pens where poor
— Andrew Gardner (@AndrewSGardner1) October 23, 2021
Tbh Mount did miss his pen. You can see why he wanted it.
— ⚽WOK (@WatchmanOfKante) October 23, 2021
Exactly what we need in the team, everyone fighting for their spot in the team trying to prove to the manager why they should play. It creates a hungry team and a great winning mentality
— Kev 🃏🏴🇬🇧 (@Kev_Ritchard) October 23, 2021
Barkley is a good pen taker tbf and I like how it seems he is trying to prove himself
— Adam (@CarefreeAdz) October 23, 2021
Barkley can’t buy a goal
Luckily for Mount, he managed to put the ball past Krul at the second attempt.
He then rounded off an awesome afternoon by sealing his hat-trick in injury time.
Had Barkley converted the penalty, he would’ve become Chelsea’s 18th different goal scorer this term.
It would’ve also marked the 27-year-old’s first for the Blues since netting in a 6-0 Carabao Cup thumping of Barnsley last September.
But the wait for that golden goal goes on…