Why Romelu Lukaku yelled at Marcos Alonso as controversial Chelsea decision awaits Thomas Tuchel

When Mateo Kovacic joined Chelsea – initially on loan – from Real Madrid in the summer of 2018 there were very few who doubted his technical quality.

A wonderfully balanced dribbler and two-footed passer, Kovacic appeared to possess everything needed to thrive at the top of the European game. But too often, matches would bypass him. There would be a nice touch here, a smart turn there, yet Kovacic never truly took hold of a match.

That began to change after his switch to Chelsea was made permanent and let's not forget he was named the club's 2019/20 Player of the Season. However, that campaign and the one that followed have proved to be nothing more than amuse-bouches in the Kovacic story.

This term, the Croatian has taken his game to another level. He has become a far bigger threat in the attacking third – evidenced by the fact he has five assists in the Premier League, one fewer than he managed in the three previous seasons combined – and has taken on greater responsibility defensively alongside either N'Golo Kante or Jorginho.

As a result, it was no surprise to see Kovacic start against Al Hilal in the Club World Cup semi-final yesterday. Nor was it a shock that he claimed the man-of-the-match award.

Kovacic has become that important and were it not for a hamstring injury and Covid that kept him out for the best part of two months, he would be the runaway choice for the Player of the Season award.

"Kova has big experience and played a lot of big games in his career," Zsolt Low, standing in for the absent Thomas Tuchel, explained after last night's 1-0 win.

"He's important on the pitch and outside it. He brought everything today. He never stopped running, stopped fighting and always tried to find the solution