Richarlison may well have silenced some of his critics after playing a pivotal role in Tottenham's 2-2 draw against Chelsea on Sunday afternoon. Signed in a club-record £60million deal from Everton at the start of July, many questioned the need to bring in the player due to Spurs already boasting a fearsome front three in Dejan Kulusevski, Harry Kane and Son Heung-min.
The aforementioned fee was also a major talking point, especially for a player not guaranteed to start in the Tottenham XI. However, Fabio Paratici and Antonio Conte were simply following in the footsteps of Man City and Liverpool by strengthening a position of strength.
Unavailable for the 2022/23 opener against Southampton through suspension, Spurs' new man was named in Conte's Premier League squad for the first time at Stamford Bridge. Apart from a bright first ten minutes, the visitors just didn't lay a glove on Chelsea in the first half and it was clear to see that it wouldn't be long until the head coach's hand was forced for the first time.
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Introduced in the 57th minute as he replaced Ryan Sessegnon, Richarlison played his part in a rather bold 4-2-4 formation and demonstrated why he was brought to the club. He made an immediate impact on proceedings with his hard work, running and desire to win the ball clear for all to see.
Ten minutes later and Spurs were back on level terms with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg's shot from distance cancelling out Kalidou Koulibaly's opener. Not long after that, Richarlison received a huge cheer from the away faithful after a big tackle down Spurs' left.
He just wanted to win the ball and do whatever he could to help Tottenham get something in west London. Qualities that saw Everton fans instantly fall in love with him and worship him during his four seasons at Goodison Park, his 33-minute cameo and the reaction from the crowd does hint that Tottenham supporters are really going to take to him.
Prior to Richarlison's entrance, Spurs had looked rather blunt in attack as the front three failed to have an impact on proceedings. Son was marked out of the game by Reece James, Kulusevski had an off day, which was summed up by a poor pass as he tried to release Son in the first few minutes of the contest, and Kane had very little openings on goal to begin with until things improved for him after the break.
Richarlison had looked bright for Tottenham in pre-season and his performances in the four games certainly warranted a goal. He again wasn't on the scoresheet at Chelsea but you couldn't tell that from the celebrations after Kane's equaliser as he raced off in front of the fans before jumping into the crowd with his teammates as they celebrated wildly.
Speaking on Super Sunday after the game, Jamie Carragher opened up on Richarlion's key role in Tottenham recovering from a goal down and coming away with points in the bag.
“I think Richarlison made a difference, he really did," admitted the ex-Liverpool defender. "They changed the system to a back four, two up front. And he just provided energy. In the first-half, it looked like Tottenham were playing in the sun, it was too hot. They couldn’t get around the pitch. There was just no energy, no spark.
“But I thought Richarlison made a huge difference in terms of just making those runs in behind and providing energy that Tottenham just didn’t seem to have.”
It was certainly a daring approach from Conte as he looked to rescue a point in SW6, but it most definitely worked thanks to Richarlison's energy and desire. So could we about to see the 4-2-4 setup again over the course of the season?
"Yes, but we have to work. We have to work on this system because the second goal we conceded was because defensively we were very poor. Very poor. If we stayed with three centre backs for sure we wouldn't concede this goal," explained the 53-year-old.
"But this could be a good option for us because we have Richarlison and Harry. Sonny can also be a striker and we have wingers like Sonny, Deki. Also Ivan Perisic and Lucas Moura. And two midfielders.
"Yeah, we can switch sometimes to play in this new formation but for sure we need to work and have the same knowledge that we have in 3-4-2-1."
Knowing he would have a huge selection headache on his hands this season following the big-money signing of Richarlison, Conte definitely has one ahead of Saturday's Premier League match vs Wolves following the Brazilian's performance. On a day when a couple of his fellow attackers didn't take their opportunity, he certainly did with both hands.
Already making such an impression in his first 33 minutes in a Tottenham shirt, there is so much more to come from Richarlison. Tottenham fans may now be about to discover why the Brazil international was adored so much on the blue half of Merseyside.
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