Two former Chelsea stars have disagreed on the current form of Jadon Sancho, as the Manchester United loanee has managed just one goal in the last 10 Premier League games
John Obi Mikel slammed Jadon Sancho and accused him of ‘deceiving’ Chelsea – but Shaun Wright-Phillips insists the talent is still there.
Sancho began life at Stamford Bridge on a positive note, with an assist and Player of the Match performance in a 1-0 away win against Bournemouth. He assisted in both of his next two games that ended in victory, leading fans to believe that Sancho was finally returning to his best.
However, the English winger has notched just two goals and one assist in the last 19 Premier League games, which has led to criticism from fans and former players alike. Earlier this month, former Blue Mikel scorned Sancho’s form, claiming that the star had “deceived” Chelsea.
Speaking on his Obi One Podcast, the 37-year-old said: “Jadon Sancho, he’s come on, and he’s deceived us with a couple of games. We thought, ‘Oh, f*****g hell, now we’re getting the Jadon Sancho from Dortmund.’ But he’s gone again. I don’t know what’s happened to Jadon. He’s disappeared.
“Off the grid. He takes the ball. He doesn’t go past people any more. He doesn’t create chances anymore. He doesn’t help the team as much as he should be. And [Noni] Madueke is now injured as well.
“This is when players should step in and take responsibility and say, ’You know what, listen. Now, I have the opportunity to play week in and week out, and I need to be ready for it. I need to help the team with assists and goalscoring,’ and they’re not doing that.”
Mikel added: “Jadon needs to step up. I don’t know what’s happened with Jadon, but Jadon Sancho needs to wake the f*** up. The Premier League is the toughest league in the world. If you don’t do it here…”
On the other hand, fellow Chelsea icon Wright-Phillips, who played alongside Mikel for the Blues, has come out in defence of Sancho, stating that the 24-year-old is just lacking confidence and will recapture his form.
The former England winger told Tribal Football: “Confidence is a massive thing. You can see in elements of his game that he tries to make things happen. If you look at his past, before he joined Man United, whatever he did also worked. That builds confidence to make him do it again and again until he creates a chance or gets a shot or even scores a goal. It will come in time.”
The 43-year-old also harked back to his playing days and offered Sancho advice on how to get his form back on track. Wright-Phillips added: “I was a winger myself, and there are elements in his game I recognise from going through periods of things just not happening.
“He just has to put his head down and keep going because we know he’s got the ability. You can lose your pace, you lose confidence, but your ability to do things is always there; it’s just a matter of getting it out.”
Chelsea had started the season well, beating the likes of Wolves, West Ham and Brighton convincingly – but their recent form has been an issue. Brighton most recently dumped them out of the FA Cup with a 2-1 win in the fourth round, before beating them 3-0 in the league.
Manchester City and Ipswich Town have both beaten the Blues in recent weeks, too, with Mikel criticising the overall team’s performance and recruitment over the season. He said: “For me, the recruitment process has been really, really poor. You brought back Joao Felix from wherever the f*** he was. You brought him back to the football club and let him go after three months. What is going on?
“Right now, the depth should be more for the money that has been spent. You don’t have healthy competition as a centre-forward. It’s not good enough. We need consistency.”
Chelsea will hope to put this bad run of form to bed as they take on a high-flying Aston Villa at 5:30pm on Saturday in the Premier League.
