Chelsea return home from Switzerland with a defeat against Servette, but have still made it to the ‘league stage’ of this season’s UEFA Conference League after prevailing overall.
Enzo Maresca’s Blues did most of the work in the first leg at Stamford Bridge a week earlier, opening up a 2-0 aggregate lead that ultimately proved too much for Servette to overturn.
Christopher Nkunku was on the scoresheet for the second European game in a row, before Jeremy Guillemenot and Enzo Crivelli headed in the second leg to secure a famous 2-1 victory.
Chelsea withstood late pressure, although Nicolas Jackson had the ball in the net to be flagged marginally offside and Cole Palmer hit the woodwork with a glorious chance.
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Christopher Nkunku – 7/10
It wasn’t just because he scored from the penalty spot in a second straight Conference League game that Christopher Nkunku looked like Chelsea’s best source of creativity for much of the night.
After Servette equalised, it took the intervention of home goalkeeper Joel Mall to prevent the Frenchman immediately restoring Chelsea’s lead. He wove things together and made five shots.
Honorable Mention
Mykhailo Mudryk – 6/10
Was Mykhailo Mudryk plagued by his usual lack of consistent end product? yes
But did his performance directly contribute to winning the tie? Also, yes.
There were a lot of blind alleys, a few misplaced final passes. But there was also some spirited pressure that earned him the penalty scored by Nkunku and another move later in the game that produced a promising shot that was blocked.
Enzo Fernandez – 4/10
A game like this, with a clear aggregate advantage against objectively weaker opposition, should be a stepping stone for English football’s second most expensive player of all time. However, that is far from how Enzo Fernandez looked this summer evening in Geneva.
The expectation of the Argentine is understandably very high, and he is not about to fulfill it.
dishonorable mention
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – 5/10
Chelsea fans have had to say goodbye to Conor Gallagher this summer, effectively for non-footballing reasons, which pretty much makes Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall stand in for him. The former Leicester City man didn’t look at home against Servette, the butt of jokes on social media during the game for his lack of energy and mobility, and looked a little sluggish and off the pace.
