Brazilian football media have not taken kindly to starboy Estêvão finding himself down the pecking order a bit at the moment, behind both Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers at the forward positions and behind Pedro Neto in the makeshift right wing-back position as well.
In fairness, neither of those are roles we really associate with the young man, who played mostly as a winger for us last year, with the occasional opportunity at No.10 — two positions that don’t actually exist in Xabi Alonso’s default
3-4-3 setup.
That said, the 19-year-old has featured in six of our seven games in all competitions so far, starting both League Cup games and making late cameos in most of our league games. Obviously, minutes in the Premier League is what everybody wants, but there’s only a rather limited amount to go around. And the trio of Palmer, Rogers, and João Pedro have been on absolute fire (or were on fire before JP’s injury and our blank against Brentford over the weekend).
And obviously, it’s been just one month in a nine-month season, so surely we can wait a bit longer with all the unhappiness rumors and potential transfer/loan chatter already.
Thankfully, Estêvão had a much more mature response to this question when it was posed to him while away on international duty with Brazil.
“I think every coach has their own style of play. Of course, we work hard every day — I give my best every day, and that’s what I do. We have quality players at Chelsea, so I focus on what I can control: I try to give my all in training and when I get an opportunity to play. I take it one day at a time. I try to make the most of every opportunity I get; I try to control what I can and leave the rest in God’s hands, and I also have a lot of confidence in myself.”
-Estêvão; source: ESPN Brasil
And that’s the correct answer.
