Chelsea youngster Alfie Gilchrist delivered a super impressive performance yesterday against Aston Villa.
That is according to Blues head coach Mauricio Pochettino.
Alfie Gilchrist wasn’t initially named in last night’s starting line-up to face Aston Villa in the FA Cup fourth round tie.
However, the 20-year-old defender was thrown into the XI just moments before kick-off because of Levi Colwill’s injury in the warm up.
Making his seventh first-team appearance, Gilchrist slotted into the side effortlessly at right-back. He’s beginning to cement himself as a really valuable squad option.
Pochettino was left delighted by the way Gilchrist coped after his late draft into the XI yesterday.
When asked about Gilchrist’s performance against Villa, Pochettino said via Football London: “Really good. It’s one of the most difficult things to manage the stress because he knew he was not going to play and then he was going to play. Sometimes with the young guys, you give the starting XI and sometimes think too much and the stress can affect. But because it was 20 minutes or half an hour before the game, sometimes you think too much.
“All the young ones need time to be calm and relaxed and not spend so much energy thinking on the game. He was really good. Good game from him, he is going to grow.”
Alfie Gilchrist against Aston Villa
You sense Gilchrist is looking more and more comfortable in the Chelsea side with the more senior minutes he gets.
It’s going to be a tough defence to stay in once every defender is fit at Stamford Bridge, but Gilchrist’s taking the chances thrown his way so far by Pochettino.
It’s refreshing to see that the Blues manager will continue to integrate academy players, something we suspect is a bit easier than normal because of the incredibly low average age of the main squad.
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