It certainly wasn’t a vintage night for Mauricio Pochettino’s side against nine-man Spurs, but they secured three points with the help of some eye-catching performances.

Marc Cucurella hails Chelsea duoBlues left-back Marc Cucurella, 25, highlighted two teammates that impressed him recently.

First of all, he’s given a mention to Nicolas Jackson. The 22-year-old striker’s persistence finally paid off with a late hat-trick in the Spurs win.

In addition, Reece James has been praised following his return from injury. The 23-year-old right-back is back fit and playing, which is so vital for Chelsea to have their captain back.

“We scored four goals [against Spurs] and maybe at the start of the season, we have problems with the scoring goals,” Cucurella told Sky Sports.

“Nico [Jackson] scored a hat-trick, Reece [James] is back as well and they play a really good game. So we have a lot of a lot of good things.”

Super captain

You can see James is slowly going through the gears and improving as he gets up to full speed after missing a couple of months already this season.

We’v seen in recent years that Chelsea do often tend to play their best football when he’s in the XI. We expect that to be the same theme under Pochettino, too.

The full-back will soon have a two-week break to continue his recovery after turning down an England call-up. As quoted by the Mail Online this week, England boss Gareth Southgate suggested he’s risked his spot in next summer’ Euro 2024 tournament by skipping this camp in November.

We think it may be the most sensible move for a player who’s been injury prone in his career. Of course, Chelsea will be relieved there’s no risk of an injury while away on international duty.