Hakim Ziyech has struggled for form for most of his time at Chelsea, and there were plenty of people who thought he might be sold last summer after just a year at the club.
Things haven’t improved that much this campaign, and not long ago there was similar talk about the Moroccan potentially leaving the club.
But two goals in a week have given him new importance to the team, and Sky pundit Gary Neville was raving about the winger’s qualities this week.
“I gave Ziyech the Man of the Match award, I just thought he did really well,” the former Man U right back said on The Gary Neville podcast.
“He’s up against real opposition within his own squad in the likes of [Timo] Werner, [Christian] Pulisic, [Callum] Hudson-Odoi, [Mason] Mount, they can all play in that position.
“But he has got that Mahrez feel about him, with a dip of the left shoulder and a lovely left foot. He puts lovely deliveries in from set-pieces and it was a brilliant, brilliant goal.”
All of those things are true, and we’ve seen some special moments from Ziyech – not least that superb goal against Spurs.
Let’s just hope for all our sakes that we can start to see more of those kinds of showings through the rest of this campaign. If he continues to shine only in moments, it’s tough to see how he fits into this squad long term.
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