Ruben Loftus-Cheek has hailed Conor Gallagher’s ability to seize his opportunity after a match-winning cameo for Chelsea against former club Crystal Palace.
Gallagher - who was arguably Palace’s best player during last season’s loan spell - scored a long-range, 90th-minute winning goal away at Selhurst Park to earn new manager Graham Potter his first win.
Loftus-Cheek has had a similar pathway to the match winner, having spent a successful season on loan in South London four year ago, before returning to Chelsea.
“Conor can shoot! It's funny because I was calling for the ball to shoot myself when he took the shot and I was ready to tell him afterwards ‘Conor give me the ball’ but it has just gone into the top corner,” Loftus-Cheek said after the game.
“I’m really happy for him. To come on and get a goal against his old team is good. If you don't start you got to be ready to come on and make an impact.
“That's just how it is for us, and for any club. For any player that wants to start, it's paramount that you put in a good performance and he did that.
“They gave him an opportunity and he thrived at Palace last season. I know what it's like to come here, the fans get behind you and they're really supportive. I scored in the FA Cup semi-final against them and I celebrated.
“But I love the fans here, they gave me a really good reception and cannot say anything higher about them.”
Chelsea next face AC Milan in the Champions League on Wednesday in search of much-needed points after picking up just one from their first two matches, against Dinamo Zagreb and RB Salzburg.
Graham Potter has yet to decide whether to start his 21-year-old goalscoring midfielder in the match at Stamford Bridge but says that the England international will have plenty of opportunity to impress ahead of the World Cup.
“We’ve got a really intense period - 12 games in six and a half weeks, something like that," Potter added. "We need everybody; it’s impossible to play with 11 players.
"So Conor will get his time, will get his chances, his opportunities to perform. We have to try and help the team perform in a good way so all individuals can play well in it, and then who knows - that [Gallagher getting back into the England squad] is something out of my control.
"I hope it’s the start of a very successful Chelsea career. He is a young player, you can see the influence he had at Crystal Palace last year but it’s another step, a different step.
"Like anything you have to adapt, maybe the team hasn’t functioned as well as is optimal for any player. all the players maybe haven’t performed as they would have liked to, but that’s the work and what we would like to do.
"I really like him. He’s a fantastic kid, first of all, gives everything every day. Desperate to do well, desperate to play for Chelsea, desperate to be successful here, so that’s a great starting point - and then it’s about finding the right balance for him in the team, the team to perform maximally helps all the players.
"But in terms of Conor as a person, he has been A1. There’s no shortage of effort, no shortage of desire. You’re not going to get anyone better than him in terms of wanting to do well, so again that’s a great starting point."
