9.5 rating and 68 touches: Chelsea player dazzles vs Morecambe to send Maresca a message | OneFootball

Chelsea players should be dazzling against League Two Morecambe to be honest, but there was one player who really stood out yesterday.

The Blues cruised to a victory over the relegation battling League Two side who are currently struggling to even stay at a professional club. They could easily drop down into non-league come the end of this season.

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But we know these games can often be potential banana skins and the first half it actually looked like Chelsea could end up slipping. They were terrible really and didn’t turn up until the second half.

But not every player was terrible, and Joao Felix turned up from the first minute of the game and absolutely bossed it.

After Tosin Adarbaioyo’s deflected first half opener, Joao Felix provided two excellent finishes to score twice for Chelsea in the second half to finish things off.

Felix shines

Joao Felix strikes the ball home against Morecambe. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Sporting an overall rating of 9.5 on Sofascore – joint-best with Adarabioyo – the Portuguese international enjoyed 68 touches.

Felix enjoyed 11 touches inside Morecambe’s six-yard box and completed one key pass in the game. He also completed 100% (2/2) of his dribble attempts and was pinpoint in his crossing 66% of the time (2/3).

What we saw from the attacker was a lot more tenacity, running, effort, and constant pressing and hassling to get the ball back. It was the defending on the front foot that I was super impressed with yesterday, which is something that Enzo Maresca wants and needs from his attacking players.

He has sent a real message to the Italian with his performance yesterday, knocking hard on the door for more starts in the Premier League, perhaps putting pressure on Maresca to put Cole Palmer back out on the left so Felix can start centrally.

Stats relayed by GIVEMESPORT.