Things could not really have started any better for Jadon Sancho at Chelsea initially.
On as a half-time substitute away at Bournemouth, the 24-year-old winger made an immediate impact in a Blues shirt – a shirt he had always dreamed of playing in one day. Sancho played a clever and well-weighted pass into the box and Christopher Nkunku did the rest. The only goal of the game at the Vitality Stadium, coming very late into the game; sparking jubilant scenes in the away end.
West Ham United away followed. Another assist. Then Brighton at home. Another assist. A match made in heaven, you would think.
However, a couple of quieter performances followed against Nottingham Forest and Liverpool. Albeit with the latter, away at Anfield, he was being asked to essentially do a man-marking job on Trent Alexander-Arnold – and he did that very well but was taken off at half-time for Pedro Neto.
Sancho was then unused from the bench in the 2-1 win at home to Newcastle United, just a few days before the Blues travelled to Tyneside to take on the same team in the Carabao Cup. The Manchester United loanee then missed the match at St. James’ Park through illness before being ineligible to face his current employers, United, a few days later in the league.
He then picked up a small knock, and it is understood to be only minor, meaning he missed the win against Noah and the draw with Arsenal over the weekend. And what all this means is there is now an added significance on this ongoing international break for Sancho.
Once a regular within the England squad, Sancho has not been called up for quite some time now – in fact, you have to go back over three years for the last time the winger was rocking the Three Lions’ kit. Sancho is one of a few Chelsea players to have stayed back at Cobham over the international break, meaning he gets some extra time to impress Enzo Maresca.
What has not gone Sancho’s way, though, is that in his recent absence, Neto has been superb. Especially on Sunday, where the Portugal international produced a man of the match performance in the draw with Arsenal, where his goal salvaged a point for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Fortunately for Sancho, however, Maresca does see Neto as more of a right winger, as he has admitted in the past. As it stands, Maresca sees Noni Madueke and Neto as the right wingers in this current system, while Sancho and Mykhailo Mudryk are battling it out for the left-hand side role.
Although Neto has been used more on the left wing than the right thus far for Chelsea, despite Maresca’s comments. Sancho is still working on his fitness and the fact he has not played a single minute of competitive football in almost a month now means there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work for the London-born wide man to take on during the two-week break.
We have seen it in these early stages that Sancho can be a really impactful player in this Maresca system. But the winger needs to work on his fitness over the next couple of weeks, with the Blues taking on Leicester City in 11 days’ time, to avoid falling even further down the pecking order – because this Chelsea squad, as strong as it is, waits for nobody.
