It will be easier for Antonio Conte to continue down a youthful road if we all just accept that there will be a few bumps along the way
What a game Nathaniel Chalobah had for Chelsea against West Ham United on Wednesday night. Striding purposefully around midfield and passing with precocious assurance, he looked a star in the making. Antonio Conte will have a tough time leaving him out for the trip to Southampton on Sunday. To be brutally honest, the Italian should be sacked on the spot if he even thinks about putting the youngster on the bench. I saw the future at the London Stadium and it looked exactly like Nathaniel Chalobah.
The above is a lie. The truth is he had an unremarkable game in Chelsea’s EFL Cup defeat. Classy on the ball at times, he almost scored with a thunderous drive from long range in the first half but his struggle to cope with the intensity, physicality and quality of Mark Noble and Pedro Obiang led to him being replaced by Eden Hazard in the 63rd minute. All the same, the 21-year-old’s first start in a blue shirt was a noteworthy event, if only because it suggests Chelsea may finally be on the verge of making some progress with their curiously erratic youth policy.
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