Chelsea player “opened a lot of eyes” and is pushing to be important sub for Maresca

Of all the people we thought might be getting praise on a Monday morning, we perhaps weren’t expecting Marc Guiu, but his cameo on Saturday is earning him a lot of plaudits.

He showed his usual hard running, and played a crucial role in Chelsea’s second goal, which sealed the win.

Disappointing Delap sets stage for Guiu impact

Liam Delap in a physical battle. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Image)

Liam Delap’s disappointing showing which preceded Guiu’s introduction set the stage perfect, and on the London is Blue podcast they praised the Spaniard’s running and his assist for Enzo Fernandez’s goal:

“He holds the ball up, he does fantastic to get past the defender, and then it’s not an errant shot into the side net, it’s just a little cut back. It’s to the right person,” Nick Verlaney said.

“He can’t hit a cow’s a**e with a banjo, but I could see that when you had him on the pitch he was an out ball, he can hold the ball up… I think that he opened a lot of eyes for people who might have doubted his opportunity,” David Chidgey added.

Their conclusion was that Guiu’s role was pretty defined now:

“[Coming on in] the last 20 minutes of games, relentless pressing, relentless running, being a sh*thouse player, he’s back defending all the way at our byline on a transition opportunity. If he’s able to lead the line with the press I think it inspires everyone else.”

You can see them discussing the cameo in the clip embedded here:

In other news…

Andrey Santos had a great game on Saturday and was named man of the match by most outlets. He spoke to the Chelsea TV cameras after the game.

Enzo Maresca joked that he might drop Estevao Willian after Saturday’s win, but only if the winger did this one thing he didn’t like.