The brightest part of yesterday’s loss to Manchester City was without doubt the performance of Romeo Lavia.
Chelsea fans have had to wait a full year to see the midfielder make a start in Blue, and he repaid them with a really promising showing against the Champions.
Throughout preseason, our question has been how Enzo Maresca is going to fit his midfield together, and yesterday we got the answer.
Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez are just too expensive to leave out, but who plays with them? Lavia had been good in preseason, but Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was brought in at the manager’s request.
In the end Lavia got the nod, and it really paid off. Speaking to the club’s website after the game, he ran through his emotions upon finally getting up and running.
Talented midfielder speaks out after long-awaited debut
“I’m extremely grateful for the club and the medical staff after my struggles last season,” the Belgian said.
“Pre-season helped me to get here today and I’m just grateful to be back with the team. I don’t really want to speak about my time injured but it’s never easy. No one wants to be injured. From there you just have to see the positives and be ready.”
Lavia will be one of the players most carefully managed in terms of minutes after such a long layoff, and we expect him to be back on the bench for Thursday’s UEFA Conference League game. But come Sunday, he’s going to be right back in the mix and pushing to turn this good form into points.
He’s tired of looking back at the injury and so are we – let’s instead look forward to a season of him hopefully playing well and regularly for Enzo Maresca’s team, so that last year is soon forgotten.
