A calm week and a comfortable victory over West Ham on Saturday has given Chelsea fresh momentum going into Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup meeting with Barrow.
Nicolas Jackson’s double, as well as a second-half strike from Cole Palmer, made it three successive away league wins for Enzo Maresca at the start of his tenure and leaves the Blues fifth, their only defeat so far this season having come against Manchester City on the opening day.
Both co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, of Clearlake Capital, were in attendance at the London Stadium to witness the early season progress of Maresca’s side, putting on a united front amid well-documented tensions behind the scenes.
The visit of Barrow - who are top of League Two after their own fine start to the campaign - will, however, give Maresca the opportunity to blood some of those players who missed out on starts against the Hammers and are looking to force their way into his team.
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Signed from Wolves in a £54million deal this summer, Neto arrived at Stamford Bridge with a glowing reference from former manager Gary O’Neil.
“He can definitely play at any club in world football,” the former midfielder said. “His talent, work ethic and physical attributes allow him to play at whatever level he wants.”
Injuries had perhaps denied the Portuguese a move to a Champions League club, but fitness has been no issue - touch wood - so far in his Stamford Bridge stay.
Instead, it is the form of Noni Madueke that has kept the new signing away from his favoured spot on the right of attack.
Initially used as a substitute, Neto made successive League starts on the left against Crystal Palace and Bournemouth either side of the international break, but was hooked as the Blues pressed for a winner in both games, then left out of the starting XI in favour of Jadon Sancho at West Ham.
Tuesday’s fixture should give Maresca opportunity to rest Madueke and in turn hand Neto a chance in his preferred position.
The former RB Leipzig forward’s Chelsea career has been very much of the stop-start variety so far, with his debut campaign wrecked by a preseason knee injury and then a hamstring problem in the spring.
In the Premier League this term, Nkunku’s lot has so far been a rather thankless one, with his sole start coming against champions Manchester City on the opening day.
He did, however, score in both legs of last month’s Conference League qualifying victory over Servette and made a telling contribution when netting a fine late winner at Bournemouth the weekend before last.
With Nicolas Jackson guilty of missing a number of chances in that game, Nkunku appeared in with a shout a recall for the trip to West Ham. Maresca, though, stuck by Jackson and was rewarded handsomely, with two goals and an assist in what was surely the young forward’s most ruthless Chelsea display.
Encouraging as Jackson’s progress is, though, the 23-year-old is yet to develop the consistency of a proven goalscorer and Nkunku will surely have a major part to play under Maresca this term.
The signing of Dewsbury-Hall for £30m this summer raised eyebrows among some Chelsea fans, largely in the context of the popular academy graduate Conor Gallagher moving to Atletico Madrid for a similar fee.
While Gallagher last night scored his second goal in as many games for his new club, Dewsbury-Hall is yet to make a Premier League start, with a cruelly timed illness ruling him out of the trip to Bournemouth, where amid a midfield crisis he would surely have played.
A tally of 12 goals and 14 assists under Maresca in Leicester’s Championship-winning campaign last term suggest the Englishman could bring the attacking output from midfield that the likes of Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo do not.
However, where exactly the 26-year-old would fit into a first XI remains to be seen, with Maresca preferring to use Cole Palmer as a No10 ahead of the Caicedo-Fernandez pivot, rather than a three-man midfield.
