There was only one outstanding player for Chelsea in today’s draw with Manchester United. In fact, there was only one outstanding player in the game.
Moises Caicedo grew into the match, but by full time he was a unanimous choice as man of the match.
He scored a brilliant equalising goal for Chelsea, but that wasn’t the only thing he contributed. His overall stats from the game were sensational:
60 touches, 84% pass accuracy, 1 key pass, 2/3 long balls completed, 1 shot on target, 2/3 dribbles completed, 8/16 ground duels won, 1/1 aerial duels won, 2 clearances, 1 interception , 3 tackles.
That just adds to his brilliant stats from the league as a whole, where he leads the league (or is close to it) in several vital midfield categories.
Most tackles and interceptions combined (51), most tackles won, 61% duel win rate, joint-most interceptions in a single game (7 – vs Newcastle).
His main role is as a destroyer, breaking up opposition attacks, but he’s shown brilliant ability going forward, mostly in terms of his passing, but today in scoring a vital goal too. He’s got energy, skill on and off the ball, he can hit a pass and a shot. We paid a lot, but increasingly it looks money well spent.
Caicedo benefitting from midfield change which is getting the best from him
18 months after arriving at Chelsea, Caicedo is really hitting his stride. It looked for a long time like we’d wasted serious money on the former Brighton player, but in hindsight he was just settling. The other factor is the midfield he’s playing in. He looks so much better now that he’s playing alongside Romeo Lavia rather than Enzo Fernandez – and looking back at last season, one can probably attribute a lot of the Ecuador star’s issues to the face he had to bail out his teammate so often.