Reece James talked up as ‘best right-back in the world’ after latest Chelsea display

The England defender scored and assisted in the Champions League win over AC Milan on Wednesday

Nick Purewal
Thursday 06 October 2022 07:29 EDT
Comments
Reece James: Graham Potter hails right-back's potential as 'beyond the sky'

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Trevoh Chalobah believes Reece James might just be the world’s best right-back.

James rifled a fine goal into the roof of the net as Chelsea overwhelmed AC Milan 3-0 at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday to put their Champions League campaign back on track.

The 22-year-old also laid on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal in another show of strength, dominating the right flank in his already customary fashion.

Chalobah impressed too, amid Chelsea’s morale-boosting win and clean sheet, in replacing Wesley Fofana, who was left to sweat on a worrying knee injury.

England star James continues to flex his potent talent, leaving his fellow Chelsea academy graduate Chalobah seeing no need to hold back any praise.

“We are lucky to have him,” said Chalobah. “He is an unbelievable player who can do all sides of the game. He can defend, get us goals and get us assists.

“It’s a pleasure to play with him. He’s definitely one of the best in the world, I’ve said it from day one. And, right now, he could be the best in the world.”

Summer recruit Fofana will sweat on the results of scans after suffering a potentially serious knee injury.

The £69.5million defender hobbled out of the action in the first half, having earlier opened the scoring with a calm finish.

Fofana left Stamford Bridge on crutches and with his right knee in a brace, as much underlining the potential severity of any injury as for precaution.

Chelsea will hope the 21-year-old has avoided a long-term problem, but boss Graham Potter admitted his concern after the Blues’ win over last term’s Serie A champions.

Chalobah’s fine substitute showing against Milan was his first Chelsea appearance since the 2-1 Premier League win over Leicester in August, and just his second outing of the season.

The Blues centre-back ignored outside interest in the summer window to stay and fight for chances at Chelsea, and revealed he is grafting hard to impress new manager Potter.

Chelsea leapfrogged Milan in Group E to revive their hopes of knock-out stage qualification, and a win at the San Siro on Tuesday would leave the Blues in charge of their chances of progression.

“For me I am at Chelsea, this is my club; every time I get the chance I want to show the manager that I am good enough to play,” said Chalobah.

“Any chance I get I need to do my best and let the manager decide. It starts in training and we’ve been working behind the scenes a lot on things people don’t see.

“We are building a solid team and the manager wants us to have that connection and I think we had that against Milan.

“It was a good game. To come into a game like that, I had to be ready and I’ve been ready for the past however many weeks it has been.

“I was ready and I thought I did a job and helped the team get three points. It was an important three points for us. We didn’t start the group as well as we wanted to and it was a good reaction.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in