Martin Tyler is on commentary duties for Chelsea against Tottenham today, and he noted an interesting stat.
This is Chelsea’s 100th league game since Ben Chilwell signed for the club, and in that time the left back has only been available at the same time as Reece James for 23 games – that’s 23% for those not mathematically inclined.
After a first season together where they built up a great relationship, last season saw them both suffer really bad injuries, and this season both had new problems which seemed to be the echoes of last season’s issues.
Now both are back and fit and starting – we will need that percentage to climb pretty rapidly over the next few years if we’re to avoid the feeling that we’ve missed the chance to establish a really dominant partnership out wide.
Graham Potter is rightly being very cautious with both – let’s hope that approach pays off.
