With the international break upon us, it’s a good moment to check in on the stats and form behind Chelsea’s great start to the season.
The Blues are being led by headline grabber Cole Palmer, who has kept up his incredible form from last season. But coming up to join him this season is another impressive young attacker.
A glance at WhoScored’s top rated players for the season sees Palmer behind only Bukayo Saka and Erling Haaland in the Premier League. The other Chelsea player in the top 10? Noni Madueke, rated as the Premier League’s 7th best player so far this season.
Playing on the right wing he quickly won his place in the first team and hasn’t looked back. His position – and his task in that position – is to take people on and take risks, so not everything comes off. But he’s got more end product this season, and even when he doesn’t get on the scoresheet he’s threatening defenders and keeping back lines off balance.
There’s certainly still some work to be done on decision making, but Madueke is without doubt looking better than he did 18 months ago.
🚨 Noni Madueke had a total of 20 touches in the opposition box against Nottingham Forest yesterday, the most by a player in a single Premier League match this season. 🚒
(@WhoScored) #CFC pic.twitter.com/gUnLmNRphv
— Chelsea Dodgers (@TheBlueDodger) October 7, 2024
What we want to see from Madueke after the break
What we want to see from Noni when the season resumes is basically just more of the same. He’s proving decisive in attack, and he’s putting a shift in defensively. You can’t really ask for more than that. At the moment he stands on 4 goals and 0 assists, with 3 of those goals coming in the hammering of Wolves.
In the rest of the campaign, we’d like to see Noni keep improving and start producing that final third effectiveness consistently – maybe 10 games this season where he produces a goal or assist? If we’re being ambitious, 15? That would really show a step change from last season.
