Chelsea’s best and worst players from lacklustre Servette clash
Chelsea return home from Switzerland with a defeat to Servette, but still through to the ‚league phase‘ of this season’s UEFA Conference League after prevailing overall on aggregate.
Enzo Maresca’s Blues did the bulk of the work in the first leg at Stamford Bridge a week earlier, opening up a 2-0 aggregate lead that ultimately proved too much for Servette to overturn.
Christopher Nkunku was on the scoresheet for the second European game in a row, before Jeremy Guillemenot and Enzo Crivelli turned the second leg on its head to claim a famous 2-1 win.
Chelsea endured late pressure, although Nicolas Jackson had the ball in the net to be flagged marginally offside and Cole Palmer struck the woodwork with a glorious chance.
With the help of 90min’s player ratings, these are Chelsea’s best and worst players
Christopher Nkunku – 7/10
It wasn’t just because he scored from the penalty spot in a second Conference League game in a row, Christopher Nkunku looked like Chelsea’s best source of creativity for much of the night.
After Servette equalised, it needed intervention from home goalkeeper Joel Mall to prevent the Frenchman immediately restoring Chelsea’s lead. He knitted things together and had five shots.
Honourable mention
Mykhailo Mudryk – 6/10
Was Mykhailo Mudryk plagued by his usual lack of consistent end product? Yes.
But did his performance directly contribute to winning the tie? Also, yes.
There were plenty of blind alleys, a few misplaced final passes. But there was also energtic pressing that resulted in him winning the penalty scored by Nkunku and another passage of play later on that produced a promising shot that was blocked.
Enzo Fernandez – 4/10
A game like this, with a clear aggregate lead against objectively weaker opposition, should be a cakewalk for English football’s second most expensive player of all time. Yet that is far from what Enzo Fernandez looked like this summer evening in Geneva.
Expectation on the Argentine is understandably very high, and he’s not close to meeting it.
Dishonourable mention
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – 5/10
Chelsea fans have had to bid farewell to Conor Gallagher this summer, effectively for non-footballing reasons, which more or less makes Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall his replacement. The former Leicester City man didn’t look at home against Servette, the butt of jokes on social media during the game for his lack of energy and mobility, and just seemingly a bit lacklustre and off the pace.