ESPN pundits were not exactly kind to Chelsea whilst selecting their worst Premier League XI of the season.
Ian Darke and Julien Laurens were asked to name their foulest 11 from the past eight months, with Thomas Tuchel’s team picked on rather a lot.
Who made the worst Premier League XI?
The spine of Darke’s team had blue written all over it.
Romelu Lukaku lead the line, with N’Golo Kante making up one-third of the midfield trio.
Kepa Arrizabalaga got the nod in goal, behind a back four including three Manchester United players.
Meanwhile, Laurens picked Billy Gilmour and Timo Werner for his team.
Putting our completely neutral hat on, some of the selections are surprising, to say the least.
Lukaku’s inclusion is admittedly justified.
He was meant to push Chelsea to Premier League glory, but instead played a part in plunging them to third place.
Chelsea’s club-record signing only managed eight league goals in total.
Werner didn’t fare much better, netting just four times and starting a mere 15 top-flight matches.
On this basis, it is understandable the misfiring forwards make the cut.
Billy bruised
Sadly, the same can be said for Gilmour.
His move to Norwich City on loan was meant to springboard his career to new horizons.
As it transpired, joining the Canaries simply piled more frustration on to the Scotsman’s shoulders.
The 20-year-old was only on the winning side once out of 24 league outings and could do little to halt Norwich’s slide back down to the Championship.
However, how Kante and Kepa have been called up is a bit of a mystery.
Granted, Kante didn’t enjoy his very best campaign, yet his extraordinarily high standards mean anything below perfect is viewed as a failure.
He’s struggled with injuries for some time now, meaning those superhuman powers have looked rather civilian lately.
But there have certainly been worse central midfielders.
As for Kepa… the man hardly played in the Premier League!
Where’s the nomination for Illan Meslier, who conceded 79 goals, or Tim Krull, who only kept five clean sheets.
Chelsea’s number two actually did pretty well when standing in for Edouard Mendy, so were are afraid this pick simply won’t stand with us.
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