CHELSEA fielded their first starting all-British midfield in the Premier League for 22 years – and fans got a glimpse of what they have been missing.
Ross Barkley, Mason Mount and Billy Gilmour linked up with ease as they tore Everton to shreds at Stamford Bridge.
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Barkley helped pull the strings, no doubt putting it in that little bit extra as every one of his touches was met with a chorus of boos from the away section.
His England team-mate Mount did the same on the other side of the midfield and opened the scoring after 14 minutes with a neat finish from the edge of the area.
But it was young Scot Gilmour who stole plenty of the headlines with a second man-of-the-match performance in as many games against Merseyside opposition.
The 18-year-old midfielder started off as the most deep-lying of the three and bossed the game, racking up 80 passes, 38 in the opposition half, and gaining possession five times.
Even after Mount was withdrawn on the hour mark, it was another Englishman – Reece James – who came on as the holding player and Gilmour pushed on.
And after years of seeing their academy graduates overlooked for expensive stars brought in from abroad, Chelsea supporters will be delighted that the homegrown stars excelled when given their chance under the club’s first permanent British manager since Glenn Hoddle.
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Chelsea reckon the last time their side started a league game solely with midfielders from the United Kingdom was way back on April 8, 1998.
That day, Eddie Newton, Dennis Wise and current assistant coach Jody Morris lined up at the heart of a 3-5-2 formation.
But they could not orchestrate a victory as then-Leeds striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink – who would go on to score 87 goals in 177 Chelsea appearances between 2000 and 2004 – struck twice in a 3-1 win at Elland Road.
In one of Avram Grant’s early games in charge in October 2007, English quartet Shaun Wright-Phillips, Steve Sidwell, Frank Lampard and Scott Sinclair began a League Cup tie against Leicester together.
The now-Blues boss scored a hat-trick that night – including a 90th-minute winner – as the holders scraped through 4-3.
Speaking about the midfield that destroyed Carlo Ancelotti’s Toffees last time out, Lampard said: “I won’t lie but I was aware I picked a pair that could easily be No10s but they work off the ball.
“Can you be focused and use your energy, maybe not always spending it going forwards but also backwards and you need to protect Billy?
“That was one of the most pleasing parts of the performance. When we did have the ball we did have the players who could create and the players got the balance on the pitch right.
“One of the most pleasing things with Billy today for me was that he showed those balls in the first half and then stepped up as one of the higher midfield players and instantly took it on board, played balls higher up the pitch and got into the box.
“He showed he can do both. That is great for me when I’m thinking about how the midfield works.”
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