Star man: Reece James shone as Chelsea brushed aside AC Milan
(Picture: Chelsea FC via Getty Images)Reece James is rapidly reaching world-class status in his role at Chelsea, signalled by a sensational performance in a must-win match against AC Milan.
The Blues were bottom of Group E ahead of matchday three in the Champions League, but the 22-year-old’s goal and assist against the Scudetto winners ensure they’re in a strong position to progress from this group and reach the knockout round.
With those two goal involvements, he became the youngest player to produce a goal and assist in a Champions League game for Chelsea.
It’s a mark of a player who can impact a game at both ends of the pitch, with this display coming after his match-saving clearance against Crystal Palace at the weekend, when he stopped the Eagles from going 2-1 up after Wilfried Zaha cross into the six-yard box. Conor Gallagher would score to win the match just nine minutes later.
Three days later, he was heavily involved in winning a match against one of the best teams in Europe. He did so in Graham Potter’s and Chelsea’s finest performance of the season, with Pierre Emerick Aubameyang tapping in James’s cross and Wesley Fofana scoring his first for the club.
Many players excelled against Milan but, as he has done all season, James stood out most of all.
He has been good in the games that led to Thomas Tuchel’s sacking and has picked up where he left off for Potter. Amid a summer splurge that saw Chelsea break the world record transfer spend in a single window to the staggering sum of £273million, the contract renewal of James was arguably the most important deal.
It was completed at breakneck speed, surprising many in the football industry with James ready to commit to his boyhood club especially after being offered £250,000-a-week.
It has made James Chelsea’s highest-ever paid defender, but he is worth it with the world at his feet in an attacking wing back role. He is not only Chelsea’s best defender but surely also for England who need to look to James to help fix the attacking issues shown around their Nations League campaign.
He will certainly be starting as Gareth Southgate’s right wing back role at the World Cup in Qatar ahead of an increasingly out-of-form Trent Alexander-Arnold.
It helps that at Chelsea his stature is growing without a marquee player among the group after Eden Hazard left and with N’Golo Kante’s constant injury problems.
The Cobham graduate is emerging as Chelsea’s star and he delivered in a pressured situation under the bright lights of the Champions League to prove that.
