Oliver Glasner's comments on Trevoh Chalobah's Crystal Palace debut highlight Chelsea's poor treatment of unwanted stars

Oliver Glasner has been speaking about Trevoh Chalobah’s performance against Liverpool with the 25-year-old finally making his debut for the Eagles. Chalobah joined Palace on loan from Chelsea on deadline day after being cast aside by Enzo Maresca and the Blues ahead of their USA pre-season tour.

Chalobah was key to Chelsea’s resurgence under Mauricio Pochettino during the back-end of last season, but he was still deemed surplus to requirements, and it seems he will have no future at Stamford Bridge. Palace were able to take advantage of the situation to sign the highly-rated centre-back.

Chalobah arrived at the club lacking match fitness, keeping him out for now, barring a couple of appearances on the bench, but he put in a solid debut display as Palace came up short against Liverpool, losing 1-0 at home.

Asked about Chalobah’s display after the game, Palace boss Glasner said: “When he’s in a rhythm, he defends it. I don’t know the last time he played over 85 minutes. He had no pre-season with Chelsea. When he arrived, he got injured, and now he has trained for two weeks. With this, I thought he played really well. He won a lot of battles and showed he is a very good player.

“In this situation (against Jota) he didn’t have the rhythm. If he made one step earlier to the ball, he clears the situation. I’m not blaming him. I’m really pleased with his performance today.”

The comments do, of course, say a lot about Chelsea’s treatment of Chalobah. While he might have been surplus to requirements, players are still being sorely let down if they are not given a thorough pre-season, and it also puts them at greater risk of injury down the line.

What Chalobah has said

Speaking to the club website, Chalobah said after the Liverpool defeat: “It’s obviously not the result we wanted, but I'm happy to make my debut here at home. The fans were brilliant.

“It was a much better second half. We had a lot of chances in that second-half. I think it's just that final detail in finishing our chances and hopefully getting points. But when you face a team like Liverpool, you know the qualities and danger that they cause, so it's important that any chance you get, try to take it. Obviously, we didn't win the game, but it's a positive to take into international break.

“Get some rest and ready to go again because after international break is when we need to really start getting the points and then believing and getting back up to speed.”