Chelsea supporters certainly enjoyed watching several new faces play for them in their first game of pre-season.
The Blues got off to a winning start during a short pre-season schedule, beating Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 on Friday night at Stamford Bridge.
Enzo Maresca’s side now only have Sunday’s friendly match at home to AC Milan before their Premier League opener against Crystal Palace in eight days’ time.
Several Chelsea stars impressed against Leverkusen during a fairly impressive performance, especially when you factor in they’ve only returned to pre-season this week. Estevao Willian opened the scoring before Joao Pedro doubled the advantage in the closing stages.
Photo by Domenic Aquilina/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesErik ten Hag expects Jorrel Hato to shine at Chelsea
Bayer Leverkusen manager Erik ten Hag delivered high praise on Chelsea’s Jorrel Hato, 19, after the pre-season friendly.
When discussing Blues defender Hato, Ten Hag said via HaytersTV: “For sure he was one of the best, or maybe the best player, in the Eredivisie. He’s so young but already on a very high level. I’m very sure he will succeed at Chelsea.”
Earlier this month, Chelsea completed the signing of Hato from Ajax. Even though Tottenham enquired about Hato, the teenage defender sealed a move to West London to play for the Club World Cup champions.
On Friday, Hato made his first-ever Chelsea appearance, entering the action as a half-time substitute against Leverkusen.
Jorrel Hato for Chelsea vs Bayer Leverkusen via FOTMOB
The Netherlands international slotted into the team at left-back extremely comfortably, picking up where teammate Marc Cucurella left off. It is worth mentioning that the youngster can play at centre-half, which could be useful due to Levi Colwill’s ACL injury, but he mainly played as a left-back for Ajax last season.
Blues head coach Maresca played a key role in Hato joining Chelsea, and we can already see why the versatile left-footed defender will thrive in his system.
Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty ImagesMarc Cucurella will soon be looking over his shoulder
First and foremost, Chelsea have done a superb job signing a talented defender to come and rotate with Cucurella for the left-back position.
In the 2024/25 campaign, Cucurella put in a mammoth effort to play 54 games across all competitions. Therefore, we’re delighted to see that the minutes can be shared at full-back in the upcoming season because it was a glaring hole in the squad.
While Cucurella definitely has possession of the shirt right now, he may need to stay at the top of his game to keep out the talented Dutch signing.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink thinks Hato is a “top signing” for Chelsea this summer because he arrives with a lot of experience for a youngster. We expect the competition between the two Blues left-backs to be so fierce, and they should drive each other on.