Rating Chelsea’s star-studded Premier League 2 development squad
By Siva Sankar
Chelsea fielded a Premier League 2 squad that would make many Premier League teams envious. Antonio Conte kept his under-used players match-fit against Southampton’s development team at Cobham.
Antonio Conte did added another element to his crazy-like-a-fox routine, making members of his first team squad available to Chelsea’s U23 side. John Terry, Cesc Fabregas and Marco van Ginkel filled the allowed quota (three, plus goalkeeper) of overage players.
The starting XI comprised of all the fringe members of the first team squad, with an aim to keep their fitness levels up. In a game that was immensely frustrating for the players on the pitch, two wondergoals at the death made sure that Chelsea came away with all three points.
Here are the player ratings for players we used to see a lot of (Terry, Fabregas), will be seeing much more of (Mason Mount, Dominic Solanke) and have never actually seen in action (Eduardo).
7. As is typical of Chelsea goalkeepers, he didn’t have much to do other than pick the ball out of the back of his net. There was little he could have done for both Southampton goals. One took a wicked deflection off John, Terry and the other was placed smartly into the bottom corner. However, he played the ball out quickly and was calm and accurate in possession when called up.. 37. Spain. EDUARDO