Owen Hargreaves was let wowed by the performance of Chelsea winger Pedro Neto on Tuesday night against Benfica.
The Blues ground out a hard fought 1-0 win on Jose Mourinho’s return to Stamford Bridge to get their first three points of their Champions League campaign on the board.
Chelsea were far from their best, but having won just one of their last five games, all that mattered was getting back to winning ways.
Given the games are coming thick and fast at the moment, Enzo Maresca made a number of changes from the side that lost against Brighton.
Neto retained his place in the line-up and continued his impressive start to the season with another good performance.
The Portuguese has become an important player for Maresca, and is Chelsea’s most senior winger at this point in time.
Neto put in an in impressive performance against Benfica. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Neto was involved in the goal as his brilliant cross was cut back by Alejandro Garnacho, before Richard Rios put the ball through his own net.
Joe Cole hailed Neto as an “unsung hero” after the game, and Hargreaves was also impressed with the Portugal international.
“I thought he was probably Chelsea’s best player,” he told TNT Sports.
“He’s one of those, you can just get it to him, and he can just make things happen. I think he’s really positive.
“He’s so explosive, he’s so quick. This is the one, he just whips in a fabulous ball, the right-back over covers, and Garnacho does great and puts it back into the box, and Rios puts it into the net.
“It feels like it’s been Neto who is the one who’s creating.”
Neto wasn’t the only player to impress, with Estevao once again drawing plaudits with another impactful performance.
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The teenager was given a huge ovation after he was introduced in the second half, and he got the crowd off their feet with a number of exciting dribbles.
Estevao still needs to improve his end product and decision making, but you can see he’s got everything to become a superstar, with Benoit Badiashile describing him as “magic.”
