Chelsea made a statement when they acquired the services of Ross Barkley from Everton for only £15 million in winter last season. Barkely is a bargain at that price but the English man was becoming a forgotten prince with time at Chelsea.
Things surprisingly changed with arrival of new Manger Maurizio Sarri. Barkley was given his chances in the preseason and he even played full ninety minutes in Community Shield’s clash against Manchester City before starting in Premier League’s opener against Huddersfield.
That fixture against Manchester City at Wembley was Barkley’s participation in a full match for the first time since May 2017, where he started for Everton under Ronald Koeman.
Despite losing against Manchester City – Barkley only had positives to take as it was arguably his best performance donning Chelsea’s shirt. He looked sharp picking out those runs in the final third as well as that high-intensity pressing Sarri is renowned for.
It seems a long time since Ross Barkley announced himself to English football and the World. In season 2013/14, under manager Roberto Martinez, Ross Barkley announced himself with a bang with Everton and quickly established himself as England’s next Golden boy. Praises and appreciations were quoted every now and then from big personalities. Big clubs were looking to spend big for acquiring his signatures and then he was just forgotten. Injury proved expensive for all the publicity he had gain and with time everyone started forgetting ‘Who is Ross Barkley.’
Barkely was shortlisted for the PFA Young Player of the Year in 2014. He created 84 goal-scoring chances in the 2016/2017: more than any other English player in the Premier League. Yes, this guy is amongst the best when fit.
Chelsea announced signing Ross Barkley in the winter last season and everyone starts to get down the memory lane thinking about ‘England’s next Wayne Rooney’ though he did not get his deserved chance under then manager Antonio Conte.
Arrival of Maurizio Sarri have just rejuvenated Barkley’s career and with these kind of performances – He might lead England out of the tunnel one day, you never know.
Barkely admitted spending time studying Sarri’s Napoli team from last season and suggested that Maurizio Sarri’s way of playing perfectly suits his style of play. – “I’ll play any style of play, but for the manager it’s my type of style. He’s an attacking manager, he wants exciting football, to be high up the pitch pressing, scoring goals and being exciting, team performances all round.”
With the way Ross has been playing under Sarri, he might just turn out to be an integral figure of this Chelsea’s squad.
Arrival of Mateo Kovacic indicates things won’t get as easy as it seems for Barkely or any other midfielder with Chelsea who have to fight for that one vacant spot in three man midfield with N’Golo Kante and Jorginho donning the other.
Mateo is a technical midfielder possessing superb quality on the ball as well as technically. Now tactically, Sarri might just prefer Kovacic over anyone else as the Croatian midfielder is spot on with his passes as well as he likes to run between opposition lines – something Sarri likes to have in his players – we saw that with Dres Mertens at Napoli. Despite of Mertens being a forward and Kovacic a midfielder, Sarri simply likes that quality in a player.
Kovacic is an experienced lad who likes to hold the ball as well as balance defensive and offensive play. He likes to drift the ball into final third and you just cannot ignore the quality of that final passes.
Speaking to the media Sarri indicated the important role Kovacic will play for Chelsea this season, highlighting his qualities at the same time.
“Kovacic, I think, is a very technical player and he likes to play between the lines of the opponent,” Sarri said.
“For us, that could be very important.”
Kovacic signed for Real Madrid on back of exceptional performances for Inter Milan but didn’t get his chances at Santiago Bernabeau.
With limited chances with Real, he was forced to look elsewhere for gametime. Kovacic was involved in a deal that took Thibaut Courtois to Real Madrid for £35million bringing the Croatian to Stamford Bridge for a season long-loan.
Mateo Kovacic is in line to make his Chelsea debut against Arsenal on Saturday after completing a loan move to London from Real Madrid on Thursday. But will he start? – Naah, that’s not clear with the quality of Ross Barkley on back of his recent performance, it won’t be easy to smack him straight from the starting eleven.
Two midfielders, hungry to prove themselves, both at one time regarded as Golden boy of their respective countries and both fallen down the ranks due to some or another reason and only one starts. It’s going to be a tough take for Chelsea and Maurizio Sarri throughout the season.
Chelsea will now host Arsenal this Saturday and it will be first of high intensity match for Barkley as well as Kovacic, whosoever takes the pitch. The first opportunity to mark thir place in the starting eleven for a long time. So, Who do you think should start for Chelsea when they face Arsenal this weekend?
