Starting Estevao Willian when he has had the chance to has been a bit of a no-brainer for Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca.
Chelsea have had injuries in attack, while Estevao has shone when he has played this season.
For example, it was the Brazilian who scored the Blues’ winner when they beat Liverpool 2-1 at the start of the month.
At Stamford Bridge, but also at Cobham, Estevao continues to impress. However, next season, Maresca will have to make a huge decision involving him.
Sporting Lisbon winger Geovany Quenda celebrating goal
Photo by Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images
Enzo Maresca will have to choose between Estevao Willian and Geovany Quenda
Estevao is not the only talented right winger who will be at Chelsea for the 2026/27 campaign. The Club World Cup winners will also have Geovany Quenda available to them.
Quenda put in another bright display for Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday night, scoring two goals in their 5-1 win against Alverca.
Looking at some of his performances for the Portuguese club this season, he may be just as talented as Estevao.
For now, the plan is for Quenda to join Chelsea next summer and not January, despite how well he is playing.
Maresca has Estevao and Pedro Neto at his disposal, so there is no need to rush things and bring forward the deal to sign the 18-year-old, especially with how well his development is going.
But when it is time for Quenda to move to west London, he is going to give Maresca an impossible decision to make: whether to start him or Estevao on the right. With the form that Neto has been in this term as well, you also cannot rule him out of the battle to be Chelsea’s first-choice right winger.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca giving instructions to Estevao Willian
Photo by Vince Mignott/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images
How Estevao Willian and Geovany Quenda compare this season
It will be interesting to see how Quenda performs in England, but right now you would have to say that the Portugal Under-21 international is doing slightly better than Estevao.
Estevao and Quenda have both scored one league goal each, but the latter has managed to register a couple more assists than the former. However, he has played more minutes.
Quenda is also averaging more key passes per game than Estevao and fouled way more often, suggesting that he is the trickier winger to stop at the moment.
Player League Games Minutes Goals Assists Key passes per game Dribbles per game Fouls won per game
Estevao Willian 8 310 1 1 0.6 1.6 0.1
Geovany Quenda 9 479 1 3 1.4 1.3 1.3
Via Estevao Willian’s WhoScored and Geovany Quenda’s WhoScored pages
Given that he will have one season of Premier League football under his belt, Estevao will have the upper hand. But if Quenda quickly adapts, deciding who starts on the right for Chelsea next term is going to be a hard choice for Maresca to make.