There wasn't a moment's hesitation from Callum Hudson-Odoi as he brought the ball under control. He knew exactly what he needed to do and how he was going to do it. No fear. No trepidation. Just raw confidence.
The goal itself was simple enough. Hudson-Odoi drove into the penalty area, shifted the ball onto his right foot, and then fired it into the far corner. It was the third time the winger had struck for Chelsea, the club he joined at just eight years old.
However, what has happened in the two-and-a-half years since highlights why assumptions – no matter the source – can't be made in football.
It was a couple of months after that cold February night in the Europa League that Hudson-Odoi was knocked off his path to the top of the European game. A ruptured Achilles sidelined the academy graduate for six months and he lacked the same explosiveness on his return. Hudson-Odoi's wings were clipped.
It wasn't until this summer that those around Chelsea felt Hudson-Odoi's burst of acceleration from a standing start had returned. Work undertaken in the gym ahead of pre-season appeared to have reinvigorated the 20-year-old. All he needed was an opportunity, a chance in the frontline to impress Thomas Tuchel.
That didn't happen. In Chelsea's friendlies, at least those played in front of crowds rather than behind closed doors at Cobham, Hudson-Odoi was used as a wing-back, a position in which he is half the player. That remained the case for the UEFA Super Cup and games against Aston Villa in the Premier League and Carabao Cup.
It wasn't until the visit of Southampton prior to the most recent international break that Hudson-Odoi finally got an opportunity to impress on the left of the Chelsea attack. Rather astoundingly, it was only the second occasion under Tuchel that Hudson-Odoi has been used in his preferred role.
0 Comments