Chelsea finished pre-season with a brilliant 4-1 win over AC Milan. An own goal, and goals from Joao Pedro and Liam Delap are enough to seal the victory for the Blues. But the spotlight for me is on yet another new signing for Chelsea, which is Jamie Gittens.
Today’s final pre-season match was another great chance to see what Jamie Gittens is made of. Gittens is one of our most expensive signings so far this Summer transfer window, and I’ve made it no secret I’m a fan of this signing and he showed glimpses of why.
Much like in his performance against Bayer Leverkusen, Gittens showed himself to be a direct and dangerous threat to the AC Milan defence.
Consistently driving at his man and looking to cause trouble every chance he gets. This was shown as his movement both on and off the ball allowed him 3 shots, and 3 good chances that he probably should’ve taken.
However, it’s clear he was getting more joy against Leverkusen, than he did against Milan. As he only attempted 2 dribbles with only 1 being successful. So although he still looked bright, Yunus Musah had a great performance and was able to have him in his pocket a lot of the time.
As well as this, his finishing left more to be desired. We know he’s capable of a lot better, as seen by his time in the Bundesliga. But as long as he keeps getting those chances, then I believe the goals will come along with them.
I think it would be worth it to get him some competition though with the remaining time of the transfer window left. It wouldn’t be out of the question to say that the team that started today will be the starting lineup against Crystal Palace to kick-off the season.
This would mean Jamie Gittens would have to adapt quickly to the pace of the Premier League, but I believe he can, judging from what we’ve seen of him already.
Obviously, he is not the finished product but we didn’t expect him to be, but I think he will be able to offer us lots of goal contributions and be an important player for the squad in the upcoming season.
He looks to be an upgrade than what we had already in the club with Jadon Sancho and Noni Madueke. Hopefully he continues to impress at the start of our season on Sunday.