Stats show how Chelsea’s quiet hero dominated Barcelona from two positions

A number of players shone in Chelsea’s win over Barcelona last night, and were given appropriate credit.

Enzo Fernandez scored two (disallowed) goals and assisted Liam Delap for the Blues’ third, Estevao was the headline maker with a brilliant second, Marc Cucurella was great against his former side. Even Robert Sanchez was calm and effective in goal.

But one player who we haven’t seen praised yet was Reece James. The captain stepped into midfield, as he often does in these big games, and was supreme.

James shines in midfield and at full back

Reece James and Marc Cucurella warm up to face Barcelona. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

According to FotMob, he was actually the best rated Chelsea player, with an 8.3. His 82 minutes on the pitch were a masterclass. As well as an assist he had a successful dribble and a shot on target. He completed 38 of his 42 passes, 8 of them into the final third and 2 of them creating chances. His 4 of 6 successful long balls helped the team get up the pitch.

He won 4 of his 6 duels as Barca’s midfield struggled to cope with our physicality. It was a brilliant all round showing, and when Malo Gusto went off at half time, James simply moved to the right, showing the flexibility of the system of having two right backs start at the same time.

All the worries going into this year were quite rightly about keeping James fit – but in fact perhaps attention should now turn to just what a brilliant campaign he’s having. It’s glorious to see him excelling at the top level again.

You can see his highlights in the clip embedded here:

In other news…

Estevao Willian stole the show in the game, and post match, Enzo Maresca was asked how he could keep leaving out the star winger from his Premier League teams.