Romeo Lavia made his first start for Chelsea since November tonight against Wrexham and Liam Rosenior defended his performance after the game.
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Chelsea got past Wrexham in the FA Cup tonight, but it was far from plain sailing. The Blues got away with it after what was a pretty poor performance.
Speaking after the game, manager Liam Rosenior defended his players, and in particular Romeo Lavia who made a first start since November in midfield. Lavia wasn’t terrible, but the team as a whole struggle to control the game and create any chances at all in the first period.
“You can’t expect perfection from a player who has been out for four months,” said of the Belgian.
He’s right, of course. From Lavia’s perspective, tonight was just about getting some minutes in his legs.
Essugo impresses on Chelsea return
In fact, there was a player on the pitch who had been out even longer. Dario Essugo hasn’t played a competitive game since July at the Club World Cup thanks to a series of injuries. Tonight he came on as a second half sub, and ended up playing far more than was expected because of the 30 minutes of extra time.
He was really good, impressively sharp for someone who has been out for so long. The minutes he and Lavia picked up today should mean they’re both available as subs for the midweek game in Paris, and potentially even ready to be starters by next weekend in the Premier League. At most they’ve two weeks away from being in that position.
That’s a huge boost for Liam Rosenior and Chelsea in the run in.
In other news…
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