Romeo Lavia was full of praise for his Chelsea midfield partner, Moises Caicedo, with whom he has a very good “understanding”, following Saturday’s 2-0 win over Manchester United.

Morgan Rogers may have been named the man of the match, but Lavia was certainly among the Chelsea players who deserved recognition for their performance in the convincing win over Manchester United.

It was Lavia who started the build-up to Rogers’ opening goal by winning the ball from Bryan Mbeumo and playing it quickly to the goalscorer. For his contribution, he was credited with a well-deserved assist, his first of the season.

The 22-year-old was also very busy on the other end of the pitch, making 23 defensive contributions throughout the match, the joint-highest from a player in a Premier League match this season.

Caicedo, meanwhile, finished the game with just four defensive contributions, which is surprisingly low for his standard. However, his relentless pressing created gaps for Lavia and other Chelsea teammates to pounce and win the ball from Manchester United players.

Playing in front of a back four in a 4-2-3-1 system, rather than a back three in a 3-4-2-1 shape, likely gave the midfield pair more freedom to move up and down the pitch. With a back three, the midfielders usually play more cautiously and cover ground laterally to anticipate wing-backs' runs. This is much less of an issue when playing alongside full-backs, who have wingers to back them up.

The pair have started together in midfield in two straight games, and Lavia is clearly enjoying this spell.

“I know him, he knows me,” Lavia told Chelsea’s in-house media in a post-match interview when asked about his midfield partnership with Caicedo.

“I can’t really explain how, but we just understand each other.

“I’m very happy. Moi is a world-class player, and I’m very happy to be playing alongside him.”

It is also worth noting that Lavia has played two back-to-back full 90-minute games in four days. He had not completed a single 90-minute game in his previous three seasons at Stamford Bridge, mostly due to injury issues.

Obviously, Jordan Henderson’s absence, which was due to illness, played a big part in Alonso’s decision to keep Lavia in the starting XI. Still, Alonso could have opted for other options, such as Valentin Barcola, if he did not trust Lavia to keep up with the schedule.

Alonso deserves some of the credit for Lavia’s resurgence at Chelsea, and the midfielder spoke very highly of the manager.

“That only takes all the pressure or whatever away because you know that he’s behind you,” the Belgium international added about playing under Alonso, who has a lot of faith in him.

“All you have to do is step on the pitch and be yourself.”

Lavia has now made nine appearances in all competitions for Chelsea this season, six of which were as a starter.

With a week to recover and prepare for the upcoming Premier League trip to Sunderland, Lavia would surely have a very good chance of staying in the starting XI, especially after this weekend’s performance.