
Reece James was so good for Chelsea against Arsenal last night that it’s slightly taken credit away from other players who deserved it.
Trevoh Chalobah was another Blue who was immense in the game, scoring the Blues’ only goal and generally looking ultra solid despite wave after wave of Arsenal attacks. He got a 7.9 rating from Fotmob for his excellent display at the back, winning 4 of his 5 aerial duels.
For too long in the last few years we’ve seen our defensive partnerships affected by injury and fiddled around with by rotation – finally Chalobah and Wesley Fofana have made themselves our top options and they look better and better together every time they play.
They won’t get a tougher test than a week where they have to face Barcelona and Arsenal, and they coped with it really well. Chances are that Fofana will be rotated out for the midweek game against Leeds on Wednesday, but by this weekend we should see this pair restored.
You can see Chalobah’s full stats from the match in the table here:| Category | Stat | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Attack | Shots on target | 1/1 (100%) |
| Touches | 56 | |
| Touches in opposition box | 1 | |
| Passes into final third | 7 | |
| Accurate long balls | 2/9 (22%) | |
| Dispossessed | 0 | |
| Non-penalty xG | 0.06 | |
| Defence | Tackles | 1 |
| Blocks | 0 | |
| Clearances | 6 | |
| Headed clearance | 4 | |
| Interceptions | 0 | |
| Recoveries | 4 | |
| Dribbled past | 0 | |
| Duels | Ground duels won | 1/2 (50%) |
| Aerial duels won | 4/5 (80%) | |
| Was fouled | 1 | |
| Fouls committed | 1 |
The defender also spoke about the game in a way which shows just how far their belief has come in the space of a year. They rose to the challenge rather than folding.
Chalobah also praised the set piece routine that saw James set him up for Chelsea’s opening goal, claiming that it was something the Blues worked on “every day” in training.
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