Ross Barkley is running out of time
Ross Barkley was making only his third Premier League start against Newcastle before he was substituted before the half time whistle with a minor injury. His other two starts in the Premier League have come against Norwich and Brighton where he turned in average displays against both sides, the 25-year-old did not fare much better against Newcastle.
The Chelsea midfielder had zero shots and created no chances in a poor display. He attempted 21 passes, managed an accuracy of 81 percent, zero shots, zero chances created. Defence-wise, he committed a total of three tackles and one interception. Barkley will know that he is quickly running out of time to prove himself. Mount, is already ahead of him in the pecking order. Barkley has a job on his hands if he is to work his way into Lampard’s XI regularly and with Ruben Loftus-Cheek to return from injury Barkley might become surplus to requirements at the end of the season
Alonso is proving his worth
With Emerson Palmieri out with injury Marcos Alonso got an opportunity to establish himself back in the side after losing his place at the end of last season following a series of sub-par performances under former boss Maurizio Sarri. The 28-year-old is grabbing the opportunity with both hands after another impressive performance against Newcastle.
Marcos Alonso found the net with a fizzing drive to break Newcastle’s resistance late in the game. It was Alonso’s first goal of a season that started with him out of favor, it punctured the resistance of Newcastle and silenced the taunts of the away fans who were keen to remind him of his time in Sunderland colors.
Emerson now faces a tough fight to regain his place in the side once he returns from injury.
Pulisic has a future under Lampard
Frank Lampard has faced plenty of flack from football fans in the US for not showing faith in Christian Pulisic by leaving him out of the side for Chelsea’s recent games. But Lampard showed plenty of faith in Pulisic when he replaced in form Mason Mount with Pulisic in the 64th minute with Chelsea searching for an opening goal and the 21-year-old did not disappoint. He was involved in Chelsea’s goal when he cut inside from the Chelsea right and found Hudson-Odoi, who brought the ball under control with a splendid first-touch and eased it towards Alonso who applied a crisp finish.
The summer signing should have then had an assist when he set up Abraham who thought he had his goal to make it 2-0 only to be frustrated by a fabulous sliding clearance by DeAndre Yedlin.
With Callum Hudson-Odoi and Willian also impressing Pulisic will have to be patient and make an impact when called upon from the bench.
