ALL EYES ON TIEMOUÉ BAKAYOKO: CHELSEA NEW BOY SHOWS PROMISE

Tiemoue Bakayoko made his 1st impressions on Chelsea fans during a mixed debut v Tottenham at Wembley. The athletic midfielder joined from Ligue 1 title winners Monaco for £40M this summer. Many were surprised to see Bakayoko rushed into the starting XI after recently recovering from an knee operation. And despite a promising start,1 clumsy tackle mars his performance - as he gave away a silly free-kick from which Spurs equalised.

Another equally poor shove soon after proved tiredness got to him in the latter stages as he battled back from 4months without any game-time. It was appeared obvious early on that the game was coming slightly too early in his rehabilitation, despite the midfield partners of N'Golo Kante&David Luiz. Victor Wanyama&Eric Dier were always going to be a tough ask to deal with on debut but the Spurs duo overran the centre of the park for the majority of the afternoon.

There was plenty to be excited about from Bakayoko though. Off the ball Bakayoko found himself in the right places to cut out passes&covered plenty of ground all over the pitch, as he was given a relatively free role to hunt. He made more tackles than either of his midfield partners in the 1st half, as Kante hovered&Luiz fouled, before being forced onto the left flank after the interval - where he was less influential.

In possession the France intn'l was at his most rusty as he awkwardly handed over the ball with heavy touches. 1 driving run down the right in the 1st half allowed Blues fans to get a glimpse of what he is capable of. A similar jaunt in the 2nd ended in a tired pull back after he took it past a couple of Spurs players but you get the idea that a fully fit Bakayoko will be a gangly nuisance to defenders. Time will tell if he is a massive upgrade on Nemanja Matic, but on 1st viewings Bakayoko has the potential to be the Blues' Yaya Toure clone.