Summary Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell made a funny post on Instagram after his missed opportunity in the recent win against Luton. Chilwell had a solid game overall but his decision to pass instead of shoot in a crucial moment will haunt his performance. Despite the missed opportunity, Chilwell can still take pride in leading the team as captain and contributing to the team's win and clean sheet.
Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell has posted a funny message on Instagram after he missed a huge mistake in the club's most recent win.
What's the latest on Chelsea vs Luton?
The Blues' weekend got off to the perfect start on Friday night as Mauricio Pochettino and his team picked up their first win of the 2023/24 Premier League campaign.
Indeed, coming up against newly promoted Luton Town, Chelsea just had too much quality for their opposition as they claimed a 3-0 win at Stamford Bridge.
In the end, it was Raheem Sterling who stole the show really, as he dazzled with a fine display, bagging two goals. Nicolas Jackson also got in on the act as he scored his first competitive goal for the West London outfit.
Read the latest Chelsea transfer news HERE…
However, when the game was still in the balance, Chilwell bombarded up the pitch and won the ball well. After a quick flick from Jackson, the English defender found himself running through on goal.
And yet, as you can see in the Sky Sports footage below, the fullback – who was actually playing in a more advanced role on the night – decided not to shoot and instead attempted to give the ball to Sterling. The pass was never really on and so the ball was easily intercepted as Luton cleared the danger and avoided the threat.
Jamie Carragher on the commentary summed it up well, saying: "I can't believe what I've just seen…"
He added: "He drives through… I mean, that is unbelievable!"
Incidentally, with new captain Reece James out injured, Chilwell was handed the armband by Pochettino and he took to Instagram to make a post about how proud he was.
The left-back wrote: "Absolute honour to lead the boys out tonight at the bridge."
What's more, he also had to address the elephant in the room, adding: "Ps. Shooting practise for me tomorrow."
New Tottenham Hotspur player and Chilwell's England teammate James Maddison couldn't help but comment either, as he joked: “You don’t need to practice shooting bro, you need to practice deciding to shoot.”
How well did Ben Chilwell play against Luton?
Chilwell had a fairly solid game picking up a 7/10 match rating on 90min. However, it seems his performance will be haunted by the miss. After all, when giving that player rating, journalist Scott Saunders also added: "Should have taken a shot when he had the chance in the 50th minute to seal the win but chose to square it to Sterling and the opportunity disappeared…much to the frustration of the home support who've not seen a ton of goals here in 2023."
Still, as per SofaScore, he did look like an attacking threat with decent regularity as he ended the game having made four key passes, while he also had an Expected Assists (xA) of 0.28.
No doubt, he could have boosted those attacking numbers significantly, if he'd just kept the composure to pass accurately to Sterling. Or, alternatively, just taken on the shot himself to get his name on the scoresheet.
In the end, though, the 26-year-old can at least be satisfied to have helped his side pick up their first win of the season, while also keeping a clean sheet on the night.