It's not often I sit at Stamford Bridge with a silly grin on my face. Not that it's a moribund place - far from it (along with the inherent wit and banter, right now under Maurizio Sarri, Chelsea are playing the kind of football that just makes you smile) - but I'm talking about one of those goofy, supercilious grins, the kind you sport when you're in love or watching a child just being a child.
The occasion was last night watching Ruben Loftus-Cheek scoring a hat-trick against the hapless Belarus champions BATE Borisov in the Europa League equivalent of a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition against the Washington Generals. Actually, it wasn't just the hat-trick (the first homegrown Chelsea player to score one since Clive Walker in 1982...), it was the way RLC used his height, his pace and towering physique to score three goals that Chelsea's recognised strikers, Álvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud, can currently only dream of netting. No wonder the Stamford Bridge faithful sang giddily: "One of our own, he's one of our own, Loftus-Cheek, he's one of our own".
Players who've come through the club's academy are always afforded extra love at Chelsea. Perhaps a tad blindly, we've offered unconditional support to such youngsters, even when their developed quality has been somewhere off the quality of players Chelsea have bought in from the European and South American meritocracy. You've got to learn somehow - the trouble is, Chelsea's first team is not the environment, even if the Chelsea Academy is.
Loftus-Cheek had more or less secured Chelsea's victory over BATE within the eight minutes he took to score his first two goals, but he didn't slacken off, even if it was obvious to the midfielder that Chelsea were playing, quite frankly, awful opposition. With Giroud, Willian and Pedro all on the pitch, it's amazing that the scoreline wasn't much higher (and the fact that BATE scored a consolation goal highlighted Chelsea's barely acknowledged defensive frailties). By the time RLC had knocked in his third past the wonderfully named goalkeeper Denis Scherbitski, it was obvious that this was now little more than a training game. But that didn't wipe the goofy grin off my face: indeed, it became even more fixed when 17-year-old Callum Hudson-Odoi came on for Pedro, setting off another bout of giddiness at the sight of an extraordinarily hot prospect within the Chelsea youth ranks. A shame, then, that such was the absence of proper opposition from the Belarus side that we didn't get to see much of what Hudson-Odoi can do (in brief appearances under Antonio Conte, he demonstrated delicious turns of speed and guile).
And so Chelsea will go to Burnley on Sunday with the 'regular' starting 11 restored. Some, like Eden Hazard (absent last night through back injury) and Sarri's former Napoli lieutenant Jorginho pick themselves. Others, like defenders César Azpilicueta and David Luiz appear to have made themselves indispensable, to the cost of Andreas Christensen and club captain Gary Cahill (who has always acquitted himself well when played, as he did last night). Serious questions will be asked about their futures come the opening of the January transfer window. Sarri's midfield queue is even harder to crack, and his options are envious. The worry is, however, that they are also the major obstacle blocking Loftus-Cheek's progress. "We have a tactical problem with the midfielders", Sarri told BT Sport after last night's game. "We have four midfielders and three of them have the same characteristics. They are offensive midfielders, only one has other characteristics - [N'Golo] Kante is a defensive midfielder. So it is very difficult to put in the starting eleven two midfielders with the same characteristics."
Loftus-Cheek was rightfully named Man Of The Match for his hat-trick performance last night, but that didn't stop Sarri being a permanent fixture in the 22-year-old's ear during the game, using every break in play to lecture the midfielder on his tactical positioning. However, one of the player's other qualities has been patience and a notable lack of whinging about his situation at Chelsea (after being selected by Gareth Southgate for the England World Cup squad, he didn't return for the recent internationals due to a lack of game time at his parent club), and even though he took Sarri's lecturing well, the Italian is clearly still not prepared to make him a regular fixture, with Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, Kante and even Ross Barkley currently the favoured four in the middle. Even Cesc Fàbregas has been reduced to cameo appearances in cup games, like last night, though the 31-year-old's visibly slowing pace may have a lot to do with that.
Loftus-Cheek now has a dilemma - bide his time and eventually get more regular play as his relationship with Sarri grows ("At the beginning of the season he was a very good player," said Sarri last night, "and now he is a good player that is more suited to my style of football"), or cut his losses and push for a January move elsewhere, perhaps back to Crystal Palace where he was on loan last season. For his part, Loftus-Cheek has had the good grace to recognise his place: "Maurizio Sarri and I have a good relationship," he said last night. "I would be daft not to learn from a top manager. He is asking me to improve defensively and positionally. We are working on it every day in training and he is very demanding with the team. He is so demanding on shape, but also wants you to play freely as well, which I why we can play such free flowing football. It is really good work."
He does, though, recognise the position he's in. "I have never doubted my ability. It's just hard sometimes to perform at your best when you are not playing regularly. So it is important to train well, keep your good habits - eat well and sleep well - so that when games like [last night's] come along you can be as close to your best physical shape as possible. I will keep trying to do that and it's all I can do right now."
It would be a tragedy, though, if he did follow the exits of other rising Chelsea Academy stars, like Nathaniel Chalobah and Dominic Salanke, as well as earlier examples like Josh McEachran, unable to get regular playing time in the senior side. We fans' adoration for homegrown talent may be irrational, but there surely must be a place in football for a little bit of Roy Of The Rovers romanticism? It was nice to have that stupid grin on my face last night: it just would be nice to wear it more often.
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