With Cole Palmer out injured and a number of attackers coming back from international duty, we reckon there’s a good chance that Facundo Buonanotte gets a start against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
The number 10 has an incredible 4 key passes per game in the Premier League at the moment, showing how useful he can be knitting things together creating shots for his teammates. He grabbed his first goal for the club three weeks ago against Lincoln, then started again in the Champions League a week later.
Promising stats mean midfielder could get important start
Let’s be clear – of course it’s just his tiny sample size of 45 minutes played in the league which is creating such an outlier of a stat. But still, there’s a lot of promise there in terms of what we want him to do.
To look at a larger sample size, his non penalty expected goals and assists per 90 over the last few years have been 0.34, 0.31, 0,28, 0.41 (this season it’s 0.6). That would put him currently alongside Cole Palmer (0.5), Enzo Fernandez (0.55) and Joao Pedro (0.46) among Chelsea’s most productive players in attack.
We’re all excited to see Palmer and Estevao shine, but in the meantime we’re hoping Buonanotte can get the job done to some extent. If he does get a start on Saturday, it will be a big moment for him. The alternative would be using Enzo Fernandez in that role, with Romeo Lavia in midfield.
In other news…
Buonanotte has help on the way. There’s very positive news about Liam Delap, who our writer Simon Phillips says is ahead of expectations in his recovery from injury.
Chelsea continue to be linked with replacements for Robert Sanchez, who still has yet to convince the majority of fans and pundits as we enter his third year at Chelsea. A replacement is already being linked.
