Chelsea’s Under-23s recorded a comfortable 4-0 victory over Leicester at St. George’s Park in the Premier League 2 on Friday afternoon.
Mukhtar Ali’s double, plus an own goal, put the Blues youngsters 3-0 up, before Dominic Solanke added a fourth late on. Here are three players who stood out.
Will be very pleased with his day’s work, having been directly involved in three of Chelsea’s four goals. His assists also showcased his wide range of abilities – for the first, he showed great tenacity to win the ball in the Leicester half, before playing a beautiful ball through to Ike Ugbo which led to the penalty, and then delivered great crosses to force an own goal and create Mukhtar Ali’s second.
Not a regular goalscorer by any means, but midfielder Ali was presented with two golden opportunities by a sub-par Leicester side. Wakefield and Ugbo may have done the hard work for the penalty, but Ali stuck it away emphatically – and having beaten the keeper from 12 yards, he could barely believe his luck when he found himself with acres of space six yards out, allowing him to nod in Wakefield’s centre.
There were other notable performances, particularly from Dominic Solanke and the increasingly impressive Mason Mount, but a rare clean sheet for Chelsea’s youngsters should not go unmentioned, even though the Foxes – bar Harvey Barnes – were fairly toothless. But Tomori stood out from the off at right-back, showing strength in the tackle and also delivering a couple of dangerous balls in as he provided support to Wakefield.