Christopher Nkunku might just have changed Chelsea's season for the better. Only, not quite in the way many would have expected.
It has been a frustrating second year in English football for the former Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig man. Perhaps, in many ways, it is even more disappointing than his first.
Nkunku hardly played last year under Mauricio Pochettino after picking up a knee injury in the final match of pre-season which would sideline him for four months. He never truly recovered.
For Pochettino, the Chelsea attack had been built around Nkunku. He played in the pocket behind Nicolas Jackson and linked brilliantly, occasionally drifting left and other times going wide to the left. He scored plenty and assisted more. He was the part holding it all together.
That now feels like a different universe because Nkunku's Chelsea career is all but over and it never got going. Enzo Maresca hasn't found a consistent position for him, favouring Nicolas Jackson up front and being unwilling to shift Cole Palmer from the No.10 spot. Joao Felix was the backup for the first half of the season and he was also preferred on the left.
Nkunku has had flashes but rare ones. He was interested in leaving in the January transfer window and has played like it. All parties are now heading in different directions.
So, how has this player, someone with one goal contribution from 25 Premier League appearances against teams not called Southampton (seven starts, against just over 800 minutes), changed Chelsea for the better? Well, in brutal fashion, it is his absence.
Nkunku has been a mainstay in matchday squads for Chelsea even when he is not in form or in Maresca's plans. Last month that changed. For the away trip to Fulham, Maresca made the "technical decision" to leave Nkunku out entirely.
He has not used such words but the translation is pretty much that Nkunku had been dropped. Noni Madueke was subject to a similar 'technical decision' earlier this season after poor training performances. Reading between the lines, Nkunku just wasn't cutting it for Maresca.
The Chelsea bench that day included only two out-and-out attackers. Tyrique George and Jadon Sancho both kept their place, as is usual, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in as well.
Sancho was brought on at half-time to replace Madueke in a tactical switch from Maresca. Had Nkunku been in the squad, nothing would have changed at this stage. It was in the 78th minute that the impact came.
Still 1-0 down and trailing after Alex Iwobi's opening in the first half, Maresca took off Jackson - his only fit senior striker - and brought on George. The teenager has been used sporadically as a No.9 during the Conference League campaign and scored his first goal for the club a week earlier in the away quarter-final first leg against Legia Warsaw.
George has been dangerous when called on for Chelsea for most of the season. When Jackson was out through injury and he still wasn't getting the opportunities that form suggested he should, many had called for him to be thrown in.
Maresca has be careful with George, though. Maybe a little too careful at times. He had turned down the chance to praise him, instead being guarded and coy of his expectations and analysis of the Cobham graduate.
Here, George may just have saved his season. Five minutes after coming on, the natural winger hit a first-time shot on the edge of the box and arrowed it into the bottom corner. His first Premier League goal and a brilliant strike. There was no time for celebration.
Although the Chelsea fans exploded and some of the players flocked to George, he showed no emotion at all. Racing to go and pick the ball up to get things going again, George showed a maturity that has been missing elsewhere.
Chelsea drawing at Craven Cottage wouldn't have massively helped their position in the table. After dropping points against Brentford and Ipswich Town in the easiest two looking games left at that stage, failing to win this match would have been catastrophic.
It is easy to look back in hindsight and say Chelsea would have been okay thanks to wins over Everton and Liverpool but the reality is that the spark taken into those performances simply would not have been there without the turnaround at Fulham.
Buoyed by George's equaliser - which had come from nothing despite an improved second half - Chelsea went on to find a winner. Pedro Neto slammed home in the 94th minute to send the away end wild.
Chelsea players celebrate after Tyrique George's equalising goal
Chelsea players celebrate after Tyrique George's equalising goal against Fulham (Image: Chelsea FC)
Chelsea's players pushed George forward in front of the fans (who had been singing his new chant all day, even before his cameo) and made him the centre of attention. They recognised that George had been the man to ignite what was looking like an effective season-ender.
Chelsea would have ended that afternoon closer to 10th than fifth. They would have been only three points above Fulham. Now they are fifth themselves and in a commanding position to keep climbing. Fulham are 11th, 12 points back.
Without George's moment it is hard to see how Chelsea get themselves to a draw, let alone a win. Had Nkunku been on the bench then the trends of the season indicate he would have come on before George in the No.9 spot. Maresca even admitted that George could have been cut from the squad completely.
"And probably in this moment, if he [Nkunku] is in the squad, one offensive player has to be out of the squad for the Fulham game," he said last week. "That's probably Tyrique. But we decide."
Maresca also downplayed the notion that Nkunku's price tag (£52million from his transfer in 2023, agreed in 2022) had anything to do with the decision. "Since day one, I just try to do my best for the club," he explained. "So any decision I take, it's always thinking the best thing for the club.
"I know that Christoph costs a lot of money and Tyrique is from the academy. But sometimes, I'm not a just person to take this kind of decision, that probably from outside it's difficult to see. But from inside, when you see them working every day, you have to take a decision."
Nothing in 2025 suggests Nkunku would have had any sort of imprint on the game. So yes, Maresca's bold call to drop Nkunku is a sliding door for Chelsea.
The job is not done yet but they are on their way towards achieving goals which looked scarily out of sight by the Thames. George's goal saved Chelsea's season. Neto's winner gave it life. The scenes at the end proved to be a catalyst with beating Everton the next step. Getting past Liverpool on Sunday was a massive move forward and now the final three games have to be the finishing touch on a dramatic change in dynamics.
Chelsea are all of a sudden playing with confidence and momentum behind them. They have their fans back on board and the prospect of Champions League football returning to Stamford Bridge is not one of hope but now expectation.
It is impossible to know how things would have played out with Nkunku on the bench but all the evidence we have from the previous four months says it wouldn't have been as positive as this. Chelsea's task is now to make sure it isn't a moment in vain.
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Chelsea ended the 2023/24 Premier League season on a high, but it is never quiet at Stamford Bridge and the summer looks set to be one full of news, with question marks over Mauricio Pochettino's future at the club and plenty of talk around transfers.
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