Moises Caicedo’s excellent showing against West Ham at the weekend was similar to an N’Golo Kante-style performance.
That’s according to John Obi Mikel, who has also predicted the Blues midfielder to become a future key leader for the club.
Caicedo was crucial to Chelsea’s success in their 3-0 away win at West Ham as he assisted Nicolas Jackson for their second goal of the day.
The Ecuadorian international put in a much improved shift compared to his last visit to the London Stadium, in which he conceded a penalty on what was his Blues debut.
His performance shows how settled he now is at Chelsea, with former midfielder Mikel comparing him to the legendary Kante.
“Best game in a Chelsea shirt,” said his Obi One Podcast co-host Chris McHardy, and Mikel replied: “Yeah, he was everywhere.
“We’ve talked about Moises Caicedo and how much we thought… Of course, he didn’t start his Chelsea career really well and a few games into his Chelsea career, there were loads of mistakes.
“Everyone was thinking, ‘Why did we pay so much money for this guy?’ Now we can see those performances that he was performing at Brighton and stuff like that so, an absolutely fantastic player.
“Everywhere on Saturday. Not just breaking up play, trying to link-up play as well, passing, everything.
“Now you can feel this is the Moises Caicedo that we all know and also when you watch him, when you look at him right now, you can see that there’s a bit of confidence there.
“There’s a bit of, ‘Ok, now I’m playing for Chelsea Football Club, this is my team.’ With the performances, with the way he behaves on the pitch, there is no sort of [ego]… Exactly!
“He’s absolutely fantastic, I watched him there, he was everywhere. It’s a bit like a Kante kind of performance, all credit to Moises and also for the manager to give him such confidence and to make sure that he believes in him.”
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Enzo Fernandez captained Chelsea against West Ham, with the club’s designated skipper Reece James still out with a hamstring issue.
Argentina international Fernandez has worn the armband for the Blues on two occasions this season but Mikel thinks that could be given to Caicedo in the long term.
“Now he’s paid off with the performances and this is the guy that I think will eventually go on to maybe, probably captain the team,” Mikel added.
Despite it being only his second season at Chelsea, Caicedo has made 55 appearances in competitions.
Starts have come in all five of their Premier League matches in the current campaign, as well as in their 2-0 Conference League qualifying first leg first leg win over Servette.
Caicedo could be set for a rest on Tuesday night when Chelsea host League Two Barrow in the Carabao Cup third round, live on talkSPORT 2.
“I didn’t hear any of that.”