Mauricio Pochettino’s side moved up to 10th with victory over Crystal Palace (Picture: Getty)
Mauricio Pochettino insists Christopher Nkunku is ‘far from his best’ despite impressing in Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday night.
Mykhailo Mudryk opened the scoring for the west Londoners while Noni Madueke slotted home an 89th-minute penalty to secure all three points.
Nkunku linked Chelsea together wonderfully as an advanced midfielder, before being shifted out wide for the final stages of his 70-minute outing.
He was involved with just about everything Chelsea did well in an attacking sense and was perhaps unfortunate not to find himself on the scoresheet.
But Pochettino wants to see more from the 26-year-old, who arrived at Stamford Bridge from RB Leipzig in a deal worth £52m this summer.
‘The problem is that Christopher Nkunku is still far away from his best,’ Pochettino told Amazon Prime.
‘He is a very intelligent player. He can connect [us]. We missed this kind of playmaker.
Christopher Nkunku impressed in Chelsea’s win over Crystal Palace (Picture: Getty)
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‘Nkunku can do this, but he is more of an offensive player, who is going to go forward and have space in-between the lines.
‘Sometimes we missed [this]. But the combinations with Mykhailo Mudryk and Nicolas Jackson, they were good.’
Chelsea’s victory sees them move up to 10th in the Premier League and the Blues return to action a trip to Luton Town on Saturday.
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He put in an impressive performance.