LONDON — If Cole Palmer is the creative soul of Chelsea, Moises Caicedo is the heartbeat of the Club World Cup champions.
Caicedo’s dominance was crystal clear on Sunday as Chelsea beat Liverpool in front of a raucous home crowd at Stamford Bridge.
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The Ecuadorian midfielder smashed home a stunner to put Chelsea 1-0 up against Liverpool and he was named Player of the Match as he drove them toward a dramatic 95th-minute winner against the reigning Premier League champions.
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Speaking to Pro Soccer Talk after the game, central midfielder Caicedo, 23, was asked if this win felt like a big moment in the season for the Premier League’s youngest team (average starting XI of just 24 years and 145 days).
“Yeah, for sure, when you beat big teams, it’s so important for us to have confidence and today we did it and we’re going to keep going and doing really well,” Caicedo said.
Chelsea sit five points off the top of the table with seven games gone and despite missing so many defensive players, plus forwards Cole Palmer and Liam Delap, through injury they will take huge confidence from their performance against Liverpool.
More goals the aim for Caicedo
One of the best holding midfielders on the planet, Caicedo also revealed he’s been working hard to score more goals — in the first seven games of this Premier League season he’s already scored three times, surpassing the two goals he scored in his first two seasons at Chelsea — to add an extra layer to his play.
“I’m just working for sure, I want to score goals to help the team, it was a great goal,” Caicedo said. “I told myself this season I had to score goals from outside and I did it.”
Caicedo had more defensive contributions than any other player on the pitch against Liverpool and this season he leads the Premier League in interceptions as he so often breaks up play, gets Chelsea going and starts attacks.
Named player of the match against Liverpool, plus lauded by the Chelsea fans and pundits alike, Caicedo also received high praise from Chelsea assistant coach Willy Caballero (who stepped in for media duties after Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca was sent off) after his all-action display.
“About Moi [Caicedo], what else can we say? He has played a lot of games with the Club World Cup and with the national team, so we need to manage him sometimes as we want him to arrive to matches feeling well,” Caballero said. “Against Liverpool, he did, once again, a great job and had a great game. Also, he scored a fantastic goal that gave us an opportunity to manage the game a little bit more.”
Chelsea in the Premier League title race?
After finishing fourth last season, their first under Maresca, does it feel like Chelsea are ready to make the next step forward and challenge for the Premier League title this season?
“It’s too early to say,” Caicedo explained. “For sure we want to win the Premier League but we’re all step-by-step because it’s Premier League and is tough but we want to do our best in this Premier League this season.”
Caicedo did admit this win against Liverpool feels like a turning point after Chelsea suffered back-to-back league defeats against Manchester United and Brighton after red cards impacted them severely.
“Yeah, for sure because as I said, the Premier League is so difficult, you need to be consistent so we show our quality. We show our character on the pitch and for sure we want to continue with this momentum,” Caicedo added.
The next Kante, Makelele?
As for the love he receives from the Chelsea faithful, who have stuck with him after his slow start to life as a Blue following his $154 million move from Brighton in the summer of 2023, Caicedo thanked them as comparisons with Chelsea greats N’Golo Kante and Claude Makelele continue to gather steam.
“For sure it’s so good because they love me but for sure I’m too far from N’Golo Kante or Makelele,” Caicedo smiled. “What they did here, it was a lot. I’m with this way but I’m going to keep working because I want to become a legend here.”
Given how many incredible attacking talents Chelsea have now, and have had in so many teams over the years, the need for a world-class holding midfielder is clear.
Even if the modest Ecuadorian international won’t admit it, Caicedo is so important to everything they do and if he can stay in this type of form, maybe Chelsea can shock everyone this season? He’s that good.
