Are Chelsea finally seeing a return on their Mudryk investment?
Chelsea fans must wish the season still had a few more weeks to run. A 10-point deficit to Aston Villa means Mauricio Pochettino’s men cannot qualify for the Champions League this year, but their recent form has given the Stamford Bridge faithful hope that they could be in the mix next term.
A 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest on Saturday means Chelsea have lost only one of their last 13 Premier League encounters. They have not been perfect in that time - a 5-0 loss to Arsenal was a real low, while there were dropped points against Burnley and Sheffield United - but things are starting to look up in the blue corner of west London.
To some extent, this is merely a correction. Chelsea’s underlying numbers have actually been pretty solid throughout the campaign. They rank only 10th for xG against, but their own xG suggests only four teams - Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Newcastle United - have created better chances than the Blues in 2023/24.
At the same time, it is clear that Chelsea’s performances in recent weeks have been superior to most of those they served up until around the middle of February. They have looked particularly dangerous going forward, scoring 24 goals in their last eight matches. Only Manchester City have been more prolific over that period.
Having a relatively settled frontline has helped, although the reason Pochettino has not had to make many changes at the top of the pitch is that his forwards have been perfoming well.
Cole Palmer has been superb all season long, but Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk and Nicolas Jackson have all stepped up to the plate of late. All three of those players have started each of Chelsea’s last six top-flight contests, from which they have taken 13 points from a possible 18.
A few months back, there were calls for the Blues to cut their losses on Mudryk in particular. It is fair to say the Ukraine international has taken a while to settle in London, and he has not yet done enough to live up to his £88.5m price tag, not to mention the eight-and-a-half-year contract that would have made him difficult to shift regardless of the club’s own desires.
Yet Mudryk is now starting to show why Chelsea paid such big money for him in the first place. He took his goal against Forest brilliantly, making a well-timed run to seize onto Palmer’s through-ball, cutting inside past Willy Boly and calmly rolling his finish past Matz Sels to give Chelsea the lead.
"I noticed that he is more mature," Pochettino said of Mudryk a few weeks back. "I have noticed that he is a good example of a player who needs time to improve to be more mature and realise where he is."
Indeed, it is surely no coincidence that Mudryk is playing with more confidence now that he has had a run of games in the XI. He looks sharper off the ball and less fearful on it. The winger himself would admit that a return of five goals and two assists is less than what was expected of him in his first full season at Stamford Bridge, but Mudryk is not the only Chelsea player to have struggled over the last 18 months. If the club can get the off-field environment right, it will give their youngsters the best chance of succeeding.
At 23, perhaps Mudryk does not belong in that category anymore. But he is certainly a player with huge potential and it is down to Chelsea to help make him realise it.
