On what was an incredibly disappointing evening for everyone involved at and with the club, there was one positive that can be taken away from the game
The Chelsea fanbase are left hurting once again after losing at home to Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Saturday night, making it six defeats from the last seven, with a win at second from bottom League One side Port Vale the only exception in that time.
It was another incredibly disappointing performance, both as a collective and from a number of individuals, namely the likes of Cole Palmer who just simply did not step up once again.
One player, however, who did have a very good game amongst several poor displays, was defender Jorrel Hato.
The Dutchman was very aggressive and front footed, as well as looking to help the team from build up with his passing and carrying from the back, despite not getting much help from his team mates throughout the game.
There is now hope within the fanbase that this will be a catalyst to more game time in the coming weeks ahead of the end of the season.
Since joining Chelsea from Ajax last summer, Hato has played around 1850 minutes across all competitions, which is the equivalent of around 20 1/2 full games of football. Not horrendous, but it could have been more, particularly with the central defensive crisisi the club have had, and the ACL injury suffered by Levi Colwill on the eve of the season.
There has been debate on whether he is more suited to playing as a central defender or left back, considering he played in both positions at former club Ajax, but from the relatively small sample size we have to go on during his time in West London, it feels like he is more suited to the centre back role.
Although it would be a very, very young partnership, it would be great to see Liam Rosenior go with a central defensive pairing of Hato and Josh Acheampong. Sure, Wesley Fofana has more experience, but he is simply not good enough, so who cares? At least the others are more unknown quantities, with a lot of potential.
However, it is clear that the gaffer is being weird with his choices there (and in other positions). His captain at Strasbourg, Mamadou Sarr, was not even in the squad yesterday, having been an unused sub in the games against Port Vale and Manchester City.
Nevertheless, let's hope we can see Hato get a run of games from now until the end of the season.
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