Chelsea fans finally got a first glimpse of new signing Mykhailo Mudryk in action on Saturday and loved what they saw from the €100million player.
The Ukraine international had only taken part in two training sessions with his teammates before the trip to Anfield and, understandably, began life as a Chelsea player on the substitutes’ bench.
Chelsea had been toothless until the Mudryk’s introduction, relying on set-pieces for the very few sightings they had of Alisson Becker’s goal.
Mudryk changed all that, creating the best chance of the match with a superb piece of skill before firing into the side-netting and then demonstrating his pace to draw a cautionable offence from James Milner.
It was only a week ago that the winger appeared on the verge of signing for Arsenal before Todd Boehly sprang into action and made an audacious hijacking.
Mudryk’s social media activity in the weeks that preceded his transfer move to Chelsea seemed to suggest he was keen on the idea of a move to north London but he now appears to be a complete Blue after he liked a chant mocking Arsenal’s lack of success in the Champions League.
Chelsea’s Mudryk Chant
He flew in from Ukraine, On Boehly’s private plane,
Mudryk said to me: ‘Have Arsenal ever won the Champagne League?
So I told him no, you know the place to go,
Then he said to me, ‘I wanna lift number three’
Chelsea manager Graham Potter, meanwhile, defended his decision to start Mudrky on the bench against Liverpool and is looking forward to pairing him with Joao Felix.
Mudryk chant ? #CFC #AWAYDAYS pic.twitter.com/jJF8qyFmVL
— Chelseafc.awaydays (@CFCAWAYDAYSS) January 21, 2023
He said: ‘He’s not played since November, hasn’t had any game time, so it would’ve been a risk to play him from the start. ‘It was more managing his minutes at the backend of the game. We thought it was the right time to bring him in.
‘He’s only been with us a couple of days and he’ll get better the more he is with us and the more we understand him and the more he understands us. But promising signs.
‘He’s had two sessions with us but from watching him at Shakhtar, seeing his quality there, he is dangerous in one-vs-one situations, in the final third he can make things happen, he’ll get supporters of their seats.
‘Dribbling actions are really high and he knows where the goal is. Our job is to help him settle into the team, help him settle into the country and league, and gain an understanding of us and how we can help him.’
