The argument against starting Jamie Gittens and Estevao

We take a slightly different view to Simon, however.

Gittens was good last night and Estevao has been good pretty much whenever he has played. But we don’t necessarily think we should throw them in as Premier League starters just yet.

It should take more than just one good performance in the league cup to earn you a starting spot. We hope this leads to more good performances from him, but Alejandro Garnacho has the starting spot for a reason and he did well last weekend. Gittens should at least have to play a second good game in a row before he’s moved ahead of the Argentine in the pecking order.

We shouldn’t let his good showing last night make us forget less impressive efforts so far.

Estevao is a different case – we all know how good he is, but he needs to be physically and mentally protected as he adapts. Pedro Neto does a good job starting the game and Estevao still gets 40 minutes as a sub most weeks. That seems like a perfect arrangement to us.

In other news…

Trevoh Chalobah is one of Chelsea and the Premier League’s highest rated players this season, which makes the culture war around him even more confusing.

Filipe Luis has been on Jon Obi Mikel’s podcast, where he revealed how terrified he had been of taking on Chelsea in the Club World Cup – a game he ended up winning.