MARCH has been a much happier month for Chelsea so far.
Having endured five miserable fixtures without a win in February, the Blues have beaten Leeds and Leicester in the Premier League and dismissed Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League in the last fortnight.
This upturn has aligned with Ben Chilwell’s (£5m) return to full fitness with the England international providing 25 Dream Team points in the last two Game Weeks.
It was his corner that Wesley Fofana (£3.5m) headed home to edge out Javi Gracia’s side at Stamford Bridge.
Factor in a clean sheet and a 7+ rating and the ex-Leicester defender was able to register his first double-digit haul (ten points) since Game Week 5.
He followed that up with seven more points at the expense of the aforementioned German giants before scoring against his former club on Saturday for another eight.
Dream Team bosses shouldn’t need reminding about Chilwell’s viability when available by now.
The problem is that the attacking left-back has had terrible luck with injuries in recent times.
This season, he’s been limited to just eight Premier League starts, which is actually more than he managed last term.
His stats in that time (when not sidelined) have been very impressive.
Most read in Football
Since the start of last season, he’s averaged a goal or assist every 165.5 minutes in the Premier League – a rate healthy enough for a winger let alone a full-back.
Any Dream Team manager worth their salt will know that defenders who combine regular clean sheets with attacking contributions are among the most valuable assets in the game – Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.5m), Andy Robertson (£4.1m) and Joao Cancelo all come to mind.
Graham Potter’s side have struggled in the final third this season but they’ve actually been very sturdy in defence.
They’ve conceded just one more league goal than Manchester City and Arsenal at this stage, the table’s top two are joint-second behind Newcastle in the only defensive metric that really matters.
At the time of writing, Chilwell features in just 1.7% of teams, making him a massive differential.
Dream Team gaffers in need of a difference-maker would do well to give him serious consideration… but his recent injury record makes him a risk.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
