Malo Gusto arrived at Chelsea in the summer of 2023 from Lyon. His signing was actually confirmed in January 2023; but he spent the half season on loan with the same team.
The Frenchman has been quietly impressive in most of his appearances since joining Chelsea, and sometimes not so quietly impressive. Against Preston at the weekend he was great. Gusto adds so much to the team, just what Chelsea need in the absence of Reece James.
Gusto has received more opportunities than he would’ve expected at Chelsea
When Chelsea signed the 20-year-old right-back, it went without saying that he would only be a backup for Reece James. However, repeated long-term injuries to the club captain meant that the young right-back got much more than his fair share of gametime in his first season at the Stamford Bridge.
This season, Gusto has already played 800 minutes of football in the Premier League across 13 games. In that time, he has provided 3 assists which is a pretty good return considering that the Blues have struggled to score goals this season.
Gusto needs to stay fit now
There’s only one thing Gusto needs to do now – stay fit. With James out, he is in line to play as many games as he can.
In this way, his versatility could hurt him a little. As we’ve already seen that Gusto is liable to get shuffled from right to left side while Chelsea are missing basically every other natural full back. This means he could play almost every match without any rest, and we’ve already seen him pick up a couple of injuries this season.
If he can stay fit from now until May, and keeps playing like he has been, the Blues can be really delighted with him as one of the better signings of the last year.
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