Owen Hargreaves raves about ‘technically very good’ Chelsea player with one Premier League start this season

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Owen Hargreaves has delivered a glowing verdict on one Chelsea player who’s currently struggling for minutes in the Premier League.

Blues manager Enzo Maresca has seen his side start well in the Premier League this season. In fact, they currently sit fourth in the division table with 13 points after six gameweeks.

The Chelsea squad is stacked with talent right now, but it’s been encouraging to see Maresca stick with a pretty settled XI in the league. He’s still rotated heavily in the cup competitions and kept everyone involved, though.

Next, the Blues host Gent tomorrow night in their first Conference League group stage fixture. It’s worth remembering that the trio of Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana weren’t included in the Conference League squad to help manage their workload.

• READ MORE: How to watch Chelsea vs Gent: The Blues’ first UEFA Conference League match since play-off win

Owen Hargreaves is a big fan of Christopher Nkunku

Owen Hargreaves has shared that he massively rates Chelsea’s Christopher Nkunku despite his recent lack of minutes. Interestingly, he’s backing the 26-year-old forward to fill the Palmer void in the club’s European group stage phase.

When discussing the upcoming Conference League tournament, Hargraves told The Metro: “I think Nkunku could be the guy to replace Palmer, you know.

“I know he has had his fitness issues, but he’s such a complete player – he’s a good finisher and technically very good.

“They’ve got so many technical players at the top of the pitch that that they’ll be fine but I think Nkunku could be the one to make a difference in Palmer’s absence.”

Christopher Nkunku making his mark

Unfortunately, Nkunku’s only started one league match so far this season and he can’t seem to force his way into the best line-up. The French attacker deserves massive credit for staying professional and still impressing, though.

Here is a look at Nkunku’s record in this 2024/25 campaign.

We’ve seen that Nkunku is being mainly used as a centre-forward by Maresca. He’s got the versatility and quality to play several attacking positions, but he’s preferred as the understudy to Nicolas Jackson at striker.

Even though we’re confident that Nkunku will score lots of goals in the Conference League, the player would surely much prefer the Premier League to be his bread and butter.