Chelsea stormed their way into the Club World Cup final, as they beat Fluminense to progress to a second game in New York.

The Blues ended up winning the match 2-0 and put an end to club legend Thiago Silva’s dreams. The spotlight for this game though is of course on Joao Pedro. 

One of Chelsea’s newest Summer transfer window signings, Joao Pedro already won over fans in his first appearance for the club against Palmeiras.

But in his first start for the Blues, he took things to a whole new level. 

Starting as the sole centre forward with Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto and Christopher Nkunku just behind him, the Brazilian made his stamp on the game in a big way attacking wise.

He ended up getting both of our goals, with both being absolutely sublime strikes. 

The first came at the 18th minute mark of the game, as a clearance fell to the former Brighton man just outside of the box. From there he tried his luck and swiftly curved his shot into the right hand corner past Fabio in the Fluminense goal.

While the second came from a quick counter attacking goal, as Joao found himself one on one with the goalkeeper after a simple ball from Enzo Fernandez, and slammed the ball off the bar and into the net. 

Other than the outstanding ball-striking, Joao showcased another superb quality which justified the choice to start him over Nicolas Jackson.

That quality was his impressive work rate. Off the ball, he was consistently doing his part in tracking back and contributing defensively.

Two ground duels won, one aerial duel won and one clearance, showed us that he offers far more than an attacking outlet. 

Of course Pedro has just come back from holiday and is far from full-match fitness. So understandably not everything he tried was perfect, and he’s still got a journey to go on in terms of building stronger connections with players like Cole Palmer in the team.

But you can’t ask for a better start to your Chelsea career than that, and all credit should go to Joao for being a match-winner in a game which he could’ve easily become overwhelmed in coming against his former club. 

Competition is healthy for a big club like Chelsea, but both Jackson and Liam Delap have got their work cut out for them trying to drive Joao out of the starting lineup.

The beauty of this signing though is something Enzo Maresca has consistently talked about, and that is versatility.

Not only can he play as the sole forward, the Brazilian can play both off the left and as a number 10 as well, which just gives Maresca a lot more freedom to work with tactically. 

Now we are in our second cup final of the season in the Club World Cup, does Joao Pedro deserve to keep his place in the side? It’s hard to argue against it.