Garth Crooks claims that there is a Chelsea defender who’s as good as anyone else in the Premier League at one specific skill.
The Blues spent most of the last two decades with plenty of the elite individuals playing in Europe. If you compare that to the present, Chelsea’s current group at Stamford Bridge is mainly filled with inexperienced youngsters that are a long way off the best around right now.
We’re hopeful that Mauricio Pochettino’s men can go a small way to salvaging the campaign by qualifying for Europe. They’re up to seventh in the league table and have three games remaining to try achieve that aim.
Garth Crooks heaps praise on ‘dangerous’ Chelsea player
BBC pundit Garth Crooks has labelled Chelsea’s Thiago Silva as one of the very best defenders in England’s top division when it comes to attacking set-pieces in the box.
This comes after he returned to the side in Sunday’s 5-0 win over West Ham and assisted one goal with a header from a corner.
Whether it’s in offensive or defensive positions, the veteran centre-back has made a career out of dominating aerial battles.
“He’s almost 40 and he is as dangerous on set-pieces in the opposition’s penalty area as any defender in the Premier League. Silva, back in the Chelsea side after a short absence through injury, was at it again. It was his header from a very well-taken corner,” Crooks told BBC Sport.
“Chelsea will lose the services of Silva at the end of the season and with it, his professionalism and all-round calm demeanour will be sorely missed. Having said that, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he returned to Stamford Bridge as manager in a couple of years.”
Thiago Silva will be huge loss
Now we know Silva is leaving Chelsea this summer, it’s concerning to think what the defence will look like moving forward without his experience and leadership.
It’s recently been confirmed that the 39-year-old defender is exiting Stamford Bridge this summer once his contract expires. In fact, it’s been announced today by Brazilian club Fluminense on X that they’re re-signing Silva.
On paper, Chelsea have decent options to compete for the central defensive positions. Levi Colwill, Trevoh Chalobah, Benoit Badiashshile, Wesley Fofana and Axel Disasi spring to mind. Let’s see how it unfolds next season, though.
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