LONDON — You could glance at the 5-0 scoreline, click on the highlights and assume that there was no match to be played at Stamford Bridge because Barrow was quickly and comprehensively put to the sword by Chelsea, who their frontline had invested that could cover the wage bill of the League Two leaders for a century.
You’d be wrong. Admittedly, Stephen Clemence’s side failed to turn a good start into memorable moments for those who made the 600-mile round trip to west London on Tuesday evening. To no one’s surprise, it turned out that even the very best that the fourth level has to offer couldn’t really hold back a Golden Boy and a Bundesliga Player of the Season. And so, in the absence of any major competition from their opponents, Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku pushed each other to a higher level than was necessary to beat Barrow.
The stakes were surprisingly high for those two in particular, given the gap in quality on the field. Felix and Nkunku have not signed for Chelsea to take part in nights like these and it will not have escaped their attention that so far this season more starting minutes in the Premier League have been awarded to the likes of Noni Madueke and Pedro Neto, who have joined the club . Mykhailo Mudryk on the flanks in this one. Given Nicolas Jackson’s good start to the season and Cole Palmer’s excellent track record last season, there is a real battle to be had for an extremely limited number of places.
Felix and Nkunku looked up for the fight. Their ingenuity in the final third is commendable, as is the energy with which they tackled their tasks in the ever-decreasing periods of Barrow ownership. With Chelsea already having scored a good goal, Felix raced around his own third and claimed a handball from a black and yellow shirt moments after he appeared to have gotten away with one. Spurred on by the free-kick he didn’t get, the Portugal international threw himself into the left-back position in a challenge. Felix may have arrived with a reputation for pulling off games in La Liga, but on Wednesday he was determined to get involved in every aspect of the game.
When Cesare Casadei needed support at the base of midfield, Felix took it upon himself to drop deep, soaking up second balls as often as he served as a passing outlet. Nkunku, the nominal striker, was no less willing to follow his number 10 towards his own goal for the landowner’s work. Once they got back to the final third, they were able to enjoy themselves.
Felix may never play a Premier League match where he is given the space Renato Veiga found him in after eight minutes. Certainly any analysts scouting him would urge their defense to stop Felix from raising his head and assessing his options. He might just lob a brilliant pass over the back line for Nkunku to get home on the volley for the first time.
With fifteen minutes played, this match ended emphatically. Neto’s clever back heel released Malo Gusto on the right flank, his low cross to the near post meeting a Gianfranco Zola-esque move from Nkunku’s boots. Five goals so far this season makes a compelling case for further chances in the biggest games.
Felix briefly thought he had joined Nkunku on the scoresheet, with his free-kick hitting Paul Farman’s left post and then against the No. 1 barrow on its way back to goal. It was the kind of strike that Felix would have been as desperate to claim as Farman would have been to rid himself of.
Even as the score rose, Barrow went down swinging. For Nkunku’s opener they caused Filip Jorgensen all kinds of problems with their deliveries into the box and the Chelsea goalkeeper had to be cheerful in the second half to keep out two viciously struck free-kicks from Kian Spence.
However, their opponents could continue to pick top talent. Ben Chilwell, an England international who his employers were desperate to get rid of a month ago, was conceded a second half. Following him were two England Under-19 internationals in the form of Tyrique George and Joshua Acheampong, neither of whom were willing to ease the pressure on the visitors’ goal. Indeed, George’s refusal to pass when he was on goal angered Felix, who would have had the right to start rolling out much earlier. Still, he felt the competition. By then Neto had started scoring, Mudryk blowing past his full back and crossing low for the former Wolves man to score his first goal at his new club. Shortly afterwards, Nkunku would pocket Farman’s for his hat-trick.
The natural tendency might be to dismiss all this as the inevitable consequence of Europe’s football kings taking on a side that has spent 46 of the last 50 years outside the English Football League. The reality, however, is that Chelsea will have to negotiate many more games in Conference League football in the coming weeks in which they are prohibitively favourites.
Tuesday was the platonic ideal for how those assignments should go. Those who have been cast into the B team for all intents and purposes respond with purposeful displays, perhaps enough to secure a starting place in the next Premier League match, spurning even better performances from those who want their places back. Seasoned observers of England’s elite in fringe European leagues know it usually doesn’t work that way. However, if Chelsea continue to approach these favorable assignments with the aggression and goal of Felix and Nkunku, there will be many more comprehensive victories ahead of them.