Noni Madueke shows promise and problems on first Chelsea start

Noni Madueke's first Chelsea start was a bit of a mixed bag.

Of all of the club's big-money purchases in January, the 20-year-old was perhaps the most surprising. After all, he'd only started 42 matches in senior football prior to joining and had hardly torn the Eredivisie apart in that time in the manner that Cody Gakpo did, for instance.

It was potential rather than ability that Chelsea paid £30m for though, and that was abundantly clear to see on his first start for the club in Saturday's 1-1 draw with West Ham.

Starting in his favoured position on the right wing, he tried to make things happen every time he got on the ball, running directly at the West Ham defence.

Rather than playing things safe by making a simple pass to a teammate, he often tried to take on his man and cut inside onto his stronger left foot, looking to get a shot on target.

This so nearly led to a goal, with an attempt from him forcing Lukasz Fabianski into a good save, but little else came from his efforts after that.

There were times when he got himself into a good position to send in a cross or play a through-ball for his teammates but he rarely even tried to do so, making some questionable decisions on a number of occasions.

By the time he was taken off, he'd made five dribbles - with three of them being deemed successful by stats apps - but had attempted just one cross and failed to make a single key pass.

Throughout the game, the Englishman looked the antithesis of the man he was brought in to compete with on the right wing and the man he was subbed off for, Hakim Ziyech.

Ziyech can often be too passive and go missing, unable to get past a player and into positions where he can cause problems.

When he does so though, he usually finds the right ball, with crossing and passing being two of his biggest strengths.

He's not great at creating chances for himself but is much better at creating them for teammates, whereas Madueke is the complete opposite.

It's not a bad thing by any means for Graham Potter to have two hugely different options to choose from, but given how much they paid for him, Madueke really needs to adopt some of Ziyech's qualities when it comes to final product to be worth the money.

Being only 20 though, he has time to do that, and is already offering more than his fellow Eredivisie graduate in other areas.

Will he look back at his first start with fond memories? No, but there was enough in Madueke's performance to keep Chelsea fans intrigued. With a little more time to adjust to his new surroundings, the Blues will have a much better idea of what kind of player they have at their disposal.