Micah Richards believes Trevoh Chalobah’s presence really helped Chelsea fill the void left by Antonio Rudiger and Thiago Silva’s absences in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Brentford.
Edouard Mendy deservedly has got all the attention after such an industrious performance between the sticks with six important saves for the Blues.
The Senegal international, however, was not the only Chelsea hero in the game.
There was a moment in the game when Brentford midfielder Christian Norgaard was very close to levelling the score despite Mendy’s brave effort.
Chalobah was the only Chelsea player who had the positional awareness which allowed him to clear the ball off the line.
After the game, Richards praised Chalobah’s overall display in a relatively inexperienced Chelsea backline.
“They were missing Rudiger and Thiago Silva, but it didn’t matter because they had Chalobah clearing off the line,” the former Manchester City defender told BBC MOTD.
“He had a really good performance. Sarr came in as well.
“But Mendy was by far the man of the match. World-class.”
Chronicle view
At the start of the season, Chalobah’s inclusion was initially seen as a pleasant surprise.
It was always good to have an academy product to make the first-team squad, but very few actually expected him to be such a reliable backup player.
Hopefully, it is also the case with Sarr on the left side. While he had shaky performances in pre-season, the Frenchman has also shown glimpses of his potential against Brentford.
Not to mention that Tuchel could really use a second-choice left centre-back as a backup to Antonio Rudiger, even more so than right centre-back.