Chelsea return to Premier League action tonight to take on high-flying west London rivals Fulham at Stamford Bridge, and the Blues could be set to wield their wealth of fresh faces following the unrelenting January spending spree.
Despite languishing in tenth place in the top-flight table after 20 matches, there is new-found optimism at Stamford Bridge in their pursuit of Champions League qualification, with a lucrative mid-season transfer window taking the club’s transfer expenditure since last summer to roughly £545m.
Manager Graham Potter will indeed now be expected to make instant progress and cast aside the dreadful form which has hampered his team over the past few weeks; Chelsea have won just three of their past 12 matches across all competitions.
That revival could starts with a win over the Cottagers, who conversely could stretch their advantage over the Blues to five points should they clinch a second win in four weeks over their local rivals.
Potter will indeed require a slick and cohesive collective effort from his team tonight, and what better way to ensure a turning of the tide than by providing £107m deadline day acquisition Enzo Fernandez with the platform to flourish.
Indeed, having finalised a transfer to join the Blues in the closing hours of the transfer window, ending a month-long saga, Chelsea now wield a World Cup-winning starlet who could be their “game changer” – as hailed by journalist Roy Nemer – to forge a return towards the top of the table.
Indeed, having won the tournament’s Best Young Player award after playing a starring role in Argentina’s triumphant World Cup, the 21-year-old has affirmed his calibre to the world on the biggest stage, exuding a confidence and swagger which could slot him right into the fold in west London.
Recording an average Sofascore rating of 7.10 in Qatar, the South American gem impressed by grabbing a goal and an assist, recording an 88% pass success rate and demonstrating his defensive aptitude with 3.1 tackles per match.
His performances for Benfica in the Liga Portugal are even more striking, with the statistics displayed above (taken from Sofascore) indicating just how refined and robust a player Chelsea have signed. Indeed, no player in the high-flying Eagles’ squad boasts a higher Sofascore rating than Fernandez up to this point.
The £315k-per-week “diamond” – as dubbed by Opta – certainly offers the dynamic skill set that midfielders in the Premier League require in order to reach the peaks of the relentless competition.
FBref rank him among the top 4% for rate of assists, top 5% for shot-creating actions and top 1% for progressive passes when compared to positional peers across Men’s ‘Next 8’ divisions – the leagues below the established European ‘big five’ divisions – over the past year.
As such, Chelsea’s best route towards victory tonight lies with Fernandez being given a club debut and conducting operations from midfield, pulling the strings and orchestrating a return to prominence for this distinguished Premier League outfit.