Estevao Willian won Sky Sports’ man of the match award last night as Chelsea blew away West Ham, and nobody was complaining about that.
The winger was superb as a late replacement for Cole Palmer, showing all of the attacking dynamism we wanted from an exciting player.
But Estevao wasn’t close to the highest rated player on stats site WhoScored. While Estevao got an excellent 7.9, his Brazilian colleague Joao Pedro got a mighty 9.3.
Joao Pedro adds another string to his bow
Joao Pedro celebrates scoring against West Ham.
Joao Pedro celebrates scoring against West Ham. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Before kick off all the questions were about the fact that Joao Pedro was starting alongside fellow summer signing Liam Delap. As it was, Delap led the line with JP deeper. It worked a treat.
JP racked up 2 key passes (most on the team), won 6 aerial duels (most on the team), rattled in 3 shots (including one he scored from), completed a dribble and sent in a single successful cross – which set up Pedro Neto to score.
A superb all round performance, and one which showed just how effective he can he when playing as one of the two central “10s” behind the striker. It’s funny, as his strength and body shape make him look far more like a 9 than a 10, but he seems adept at both.
Don’t expect Joao Pedro as a ten every game
He was quiet leading the line in our first game against Crystal Palace, but to us it doesn’t seem as simple as just always using him deeper now. Palace just have a really strong back line which made life hard for him as a lone striker.
However it’s great to know this is a handy option, and a way of getting Delap and JP into the team at the same time. We expect to see it a lot both in games as well as to start games.
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