On a cold Sunday night in December in North London, Tottenham Hotspur hosted Chelsea at the new Tottenham stadium and served a spicy-hot game of football in front of over 60,000 people.
A 7-goal thriller in front of thousands of onlookers from all over the world, it was Maresca’s boys that became men and stood tall, above adversity and Ange Postecoglou in the Spurs dugout.
Despite one man serving chills in winter taking most of the limelight, it was a London boy that started the resurrection as Maresca’s team fight back from a 2-goal deficit to win by 4-goals to 3.
It is no doubt many pundits and headlines would be waxing lyrical about Cole Palmer but Jadon Sancho is deserving of huge praise for his incredible showing in North London.
The 25-year old Englishman started the comeback for the blues with a brilliant solo goal to half the deficit in the first half before the Blues turned the game on its head with a massive second half performance.
Playing on the left flank this time after his previous two wonderful showings over on the right, Sancho maintained his good form after registering his first goal for Chelsea coming off the bench against Southampton.
Incredible ball manipulation in tight spaces and ball retention under pressure are Sancho’s strengths but those skills have not been enough to stamp a consistent place in the team so far.
Speaking post-game after getting asked how he managed to shoot with little to no ‘back-lift’ Sancho mentioned putting the extra yards in training and practicing finding the bottom corner.
The talents of the former Dortmund man is well documented but his workout and desire was previously questioned by ex-United manager, Erik Ten Hag, leading to many questioning Chelsea’s decision to sign him on loan.
Owning to the thoughts that the England international has some level of re-convincing tasks to accomplish, Jadon confessed to “wanting to prove doubters wrong” yesterday after his disastrous United stint.
Sancho is still a player contracted to the Manchester club but with a £25m obligation to buy if Chelsea finish above 14th, he won’t be returning to Old Trafford.
The 25-year old was quoted yesterday saying; They (the players and staff) welcomed me nicely and they made me comfortable right when I walk through the door on the first day… I love it here”.
Taking a look at Sancho’s recent improvements in his areas of weakness (defending and shooting) it seems safe to say that the City academy graduate has made Chelsea’s left wing spot his own for the time being.
