Chelsea 0-2 Manchester City, Player Ratings: Roméo Lavia impresses on long awaited full debut

1. ROMÉO LAVIA (7.1)

Nearly twelve months after signing, Lavia finally makes his first start for Chelsea. It’s been a long and frustrating road back from multiple injuries, but he had an impressive preseason and he continued that form in this game as well.

Fitting in all three of Lavia, Moisés Caicedo, and Enzo Fernández at the same time will be a challenge, but of the three, Lavia is head and shoulders above the other two at the moment, in just about every aspect of his game.

Romeo Lavia was a shining light today, impressive calmness on the ball that stood out & solid without it, athleticism, line breakers, press resistant, capable of receiving the ball under pressure and using impressive close control + deceptive turns to get out of trouble evading… pic.twitter.com/zseE8VG2i8

— Davies (@DaviesAyo8) August 18, 2024

2. MARC CUCURELLA (6.7)

Still riding high on the vibes of Euro 2024, Cucurella held his own against Jérémy Doku, who even switched flanks after the first quarter hour to get away from the Chelsea defender. But Cucu’s barely had any preseason and that showed when he faded drastically in the second half.

3. MALO GUSTO (5.9)

Gusto just edges out Wesley Fofana for the final spot on the podium. Coming off an excellent season, big things are expected of Gusto — especially given Reece James’ injury history (and present) — though ideally he’d keep it simple and non-inverted and just keep playing wing back and bomb forward on the right to deliver some useful crosses

vs. MANCHESTER CITY (PL, H, L 0-2)

EXCEPTIONAL (9.0+): —

EXCELLENT (8.0-8.9): —

GOOD (7.0-7.9): Lavia (7.1)

AVERAGE (6.0-6.9): Cucurella (6.6)

SUBPAR (5.0-5.9): Gusto (5.9), W.Fofana (5.9), Caicedo (5.7), Colwill (5.7), Neto (5.7, sub), Palmer (5.6), Nkunku (5.4), Veiga (5.0, sub)

BAD (4.0-4.9): Guiu (4.9, sub), Dewsbury-Hall (4.9, sub), Sánchez (4.9), Jackson (4.8), Enzo (4.7)

TERRIBLE (3.0-3.9): —