It seems like just yesterday that we were watching Enzo Maresca’s first games as Chelsea manager, wondering what a new coach would bring in terms of style and changes to last season.
Well the season has flown by, and we’re now 2/3rds of the way through the campaign already. It’s time to start looking ahead to the end, rather than back to the start.
One question we were pondering today was – if the season ended today, who could be Chelsea’s player of the season? That’s something you can bet on and while you can find the best casino UK recommendations at https://legalcasino.uk/, they will all give you roughly the same answer and the same odds – Cole Palmer is favourite.
That should be no surprise. He’s the star player, he’s the goal scorer and creator, he’s the one on the Sky Sports promos and the one with the highest FIFA rating. But has he really been our best player this season? There is a strong argument to say no, now, after his recent decline.
Game by game, as the team’s performances get worse, Palmer looks more and more frustrated. It’s a vicious circle too – the more the team struggle, the more he tries to do everything himself, and the more frustration that’s created as he tries more and more difficult shots, passes and dribbles that don’t come off.
Now he’s gone from scoring chances he had no right to fashion, to missing chances you’d expect him to score. His frustration is coming out aimed at teammates, although we suspect he’s just as annoyed at himself. He threw his hands up at Christopher Nkunku on Saturday when he failed to read a through ball – but really he was annoyed at himself for a poor pass.
SofaScore has him as our top rated player of the season, and without doubt he’s up there but who else is in contention? Their second placed player is Enzo Fernandez, who has also had his moments, but we’d struggle to see him as number two. Other contenders in the top 5 include the recently returned Trevoh Chalobah (who we imagine is getting a big boost from his Crystal Palace spell) and Reece James, who hasn’t played enough games to be a real player of the season contender.
Our nomination would be the man ranked 3rd in this particular list – Moises Caicedo. Unlike Palmer, his form has been steady since the first game of the season, and at times he’s single-handedly held this team together.
This scoring system must prefer goals to tackles, because his numbers are crazy – he’s picking up 1.4 interceptions per game, 2.9 tackles per game, he’s dominant in winning the ball in the final third and is recovering an insane 5.8 balls per game.
He keeps things pretty simple in attack, but he’s still managing 0.8 key passes per game, and has 86% pass accuracy in the opposition’s half. With almost no help in the middle of the pitch, he’s keeping us in games.
If we manage to scrape into the top 4 this season, it will be thanks to Caicedo, and he would be a worthy player of the season winner.
