Chelsea avoided a potential banana skin in the cup by thrashing League Two club Barrow last night.
The Blues are into this season’s Carabao Cup fourth round after winning 5-0 at home to Barrow on Tuesday evening, which was pretty much the perfect professional display at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca changed the entire starting line-up for the domestic cup tie, but it didn’t do anything to halt the rhythm and momentum that’s slowly building at the club.
Maresca explained he asked his Chelsea youngsters to show how serious they are, and they answered in emphatic style.
We’ve taken a look at the three individuals that proved the biggest point to Maresca on Tuesday night…
Christopher Nkunku
First of all, Christopher Nkunku sent out the perfect message to his head coach with a fantastic hat-trick against Barrow.
Yes, it was against lower league opposition. But Nkunku scored three excellent goals in midweek amid lots of pressure on his shoulders.
The Frenchman opened the scoring with a controlled side-footed volley before an immaculate back heeled finish to double his tally. Finally, he rounded up his hat-trick by pressing the goalkeeper to cause a mistake and tapping into an empty net.
Nicolas Jackson is currently the first-choice striker in the Premier League, scoring four times in five top-flight matches. As a result, Nkunku has dropped down to the bench and hasn’t started in the league since the opening day defeat to Manchester City.
Nkunku is proving to Maresca he’s the ultimate professional and that he’s desperate to get back into the league XI. Here is a look at his stats so far this season…
| Competition | Appearances (Starts) | Goals |
| Premier League | 5 (1) | 1 |
| Conference League | 2 (2) | 2 |
| Carabao Cup | 1 (1) | 3 |
Cesare Casadei
Cesare Casadei, 21, made his first appearance of the campaign against Barrow and completed 90 minutes.
The Italian youngster is regarded as an exciting box-to-box midfielder, but it was intriguing to watch him play a bit deeper yesterday at the base of midfield.
We think the youngster ticked a lot of boxes in the cup victory. In fact, Maresca should be looking at him and feeling like he could offer plenty to the squad as the busy season progresses.
Journalist Simon Johnson claimed via X last night that Chelsea midfielder Casadei looks like he’s grown. Well, he certainly used his physical attributes to impose himself in the centre of the park, doing lots of great things both in and out of possession.
Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia are the two senior options to operate as deep-lying midfielders, but Casadei may have put his hand up to show he can do the role as well.
Joao Felix
It was a routine victory in the cup against a League Two side yesterday, but Joao Felix lit up Stamford Bridge on a few occasions with some magical bits of skill. For Maresca, surely he’s tempted to get him on the pitch more moving forward.
Felix is still waiting for his first league start of the season since re-signing for Chelsea in the summer, this time on a permanent basis.
The skilful attacker was super impressive against Barrow after being named in the XI as the No.10, which is a position Cole Palmer is holding down in the league.
Felix reminded everyone what a fabulous footballer he is with plenty of intelligent tricks and dribbles, including the scooped assist for Nkunku’s opening goal. Chelsea fans were raving about Felix’s performance against Barrow.
Maresca certainly has a lot to ponder when it comes to his team selection for the upcoming matches.
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