The surprise Chelsea man who topped the stats in the Europa League

Ross Barkley really impressed us against PAOK. Ok, the opposition wasn’t the greatest, but nevertheless in a game where many of his more esteemed colleagues had off days, Ross stepped up.
His assist, sliding the ball into Willian after taking a superb first touch to break the opposition lines, ultimately decided the game, but his stats overall were superb.

He wasn’t playing in the Jorginho role, but his pass accuracy was still higher than any other starting player. Whoscored had him

We all know Ross can be an asset going forward with a powerful run and shot, but these kind of numbers show that he can be trusted to keep and recycle the ball too.
If he carries on like this, he will start putting real pressure on Mateo Kovacic in the first team in that role. That’s exactly the kind of competition we want in the team.

The only problem here is Ruben Loftus-Cheek – but you can’t have everything.