Chelsea’s season really depends on one player’s fitness – and it’s not Cole Palmer | OneFootball

Just a couple of days ago we wrote about the Chelsea players most deeply into the “burnout zone” as we reach a rare weekend cup tie where first team stars can be rested, and noted that Moises Caicedo and Cole Palmer were the only players to have started every Premier League game.

While Palmer has at least some alternates who can play in his position, we noted that only Romeo Lava can really fill in for Caicedo, and the Belgian is often injured. In that way, the Ecuador star is the least replaceable player Maresca has.

Liam Twomey looks to have dreamed up the same theme in his piece for the Athletic today, which explains just how irreplaceable Caicedo is.

The midfielder has more combined tackles and interceptions (93) than any other players in the league. As we wrote in our piece about his stats yesterday, that’s even more impressive when you consider he plays for a team that dominates possession – Chelsea are second in the league in that regard.

Other players high up in the rankings for those defensive numbers are at teams much lower down the league. Caicedo is dominating despite that handicap.

Caicedo’s fitness is keeping Chelsea’s season together

Moises Caicedo speaks to Enzo Maresca. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Twomey then explains very succinctly why the other midfielder options aren’t ready to cover Caicedo: Lavia doesn’t have the defensive mindset to read the game, Enzo Fernandez doesn’t have the legs to cover the ground, Cesare Casadei and Renato Veiga aren’t specialists in that position and aren’t experienced for Maresca to trust.

So unless we’re willing to recall Andrey Santos from Strasbourg (and it doesn’t look like we are), a scary amount is riding on Caicedo’s fitness. A rest this weekend will do him some good – but it’s going to be a tough job managing his minutes after that.