You sensed a certain restraint in the praise of Mykhailo Mudryk’s performance in Chelsea’s victory over Panathinaikos. It was as if even whispering the idea that the evening might prove a turning point would guarantee it instead slumped into a false dawn.
There have been plenty of those already in the Ukrainian’s underwhelming Blues career, not least the last time Newcastle visited Stamford Bridge in March. Then, Mudryk scored the third and what turned out to be crucial goal in a 3-2 triumph that was among the most important in the late upturn that steered Mauricio Pochettino’s team back into Europe.
Instead, the £89million signing conjured just one more goal - and not a single assist - in his final 10 Premier League games of the campaign, and picked up where he left off at the start of this season, without a goal across all competitions until Thursday night.
Four days after suffering the ignominy of being left out of the matchday squad for the 2-1 defeat by Liverpool at Anfield, though, Mudryk scored once and made two goals for Joao Felix in Chelsea’s 4-1 triumph in Greece, one of his best displays in a Blues shirt.
In the process, the 23-year-old added another layer of complexity to what is one of the few areas of debate around Enzo Maresca’s lineup to face Newcastle on Sunday afternoon.
Since the start of the season, Chelsea’s left flank has struggled to replicate the attacking output of its right and while the deadline day signing of Jadon Sancho briefly appeared to have addressed that, the Englishman’s half-time substitution at Anfield has made his position appear vulnerable.
Sancho registered assists in each of his first three league matches, but is yet to score for Chelsea and his chief accomplishment in 45 minutes on Merseyside was in a diligent job man-marking Trent Alexander-Arnold out of the game.
In fairness, things might have been different had the Liverpool right-back been punished for a first-half trip on Sancho inside the penalty area, but that Maresca confirmed afterwards that the substitution was a “technical decision” was telling, with Pedro Neto sent on at the break.
Neto, a right winger at his best, has been kept out of that slot by Noni Madueke so far this season and his likeliest route back into the team also appears to be on the left. Even out of position, he has jumped ahead of Mudryk in the pecking order.
Sancho may win the day for now, but he knows the list of contenders for his shirt is long
But Neto is likewise yet to live up to his own hefty transfer fee, albeit across a much shorter period in blue. The 24-year-old teed up Mudryk’s goal in Greece but was wasteful in promising positions on several occasions in the first half, on a night when a stellar performance would surely have pressured Maresca into starting him ahead of Sancho this weekend.
Even beyond that trio of specialist wingers, though, Maresca has options. Both Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku are in scoring form, but with their preferred first-team spots locked down by Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson respectively. Neither are natural left-sided players but both have played in the position and would offer more of the direct goal threat that Maresca craves.
Having not played a minute on Thursday night, freshness may see Sancho win the day for now. But the 24-year-old knows the list of contenders for his shirt is long, with Mudryk, so maligned, back amongst them, too.
