Chelsea remain one of the most inconsistent teams in the Premier League this season, but that's also what makes them so exciting to watch, for a neutral, anyway.
Mauricio Pochettino's side are capable of taking a point off of Manchester City at the Etihad and drawing with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, but they can also fall to a 4-1 home defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
This topsy-turvy nature of the team should perhaps be expected, given the number of young and relatively inexperienced players in the squad, but that just makes you wonder how good the team could be with a few more experienced names in there.
In fact, there is one former Blues star who was let go for free a few years ago who has outscored Mykhaylo Mudryk this season, a player Poch would surely have loved to have in the side.
How Mykhailo Mudryk has performed this season
Now, where the young Ukrainian was an unmitigated disaster for the Blues last season, registering just two assists for the Blues in 17 games, he has been reasonably okay this season.
In his 25 games for Pochettino so far, he has scored four goals, including a particularly odd one against Arsenal, and provided three assists.
While it's still not quite the return you'd want from a £62m player, it is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.
He also seems to have the backing of his manager, who said, "He's already an important player, but he's going to improve a lot because the potential is massive."
However, while he could be a world-beater a few years down the line, Chelsea are in need of game-changers today, which is why it must be somewhat frustrating to see Willian tearing it up for Fulham just down the road.
How Willian has performed this season
The former Brazilian international spent a tremendously successful seven years at Chelsea between August 2013 and 2020, in which he made 339 appearances, scored 63 goals, provided 62 assists and won practically everything there was to win – bar a Champions League.
He signed for Arsenal on a free after leaving the Blues but quickly returned to Brazil a year later when it was clear it wouldn't work out in north London.
He was only in Brazil for a year before returning to English football, joining Chelsea's next-door neighbours Fulham on a free transfer in September 2022.
In his first season with the Cottagers, he managed an impressive return of five goals and six assists in 30 appearances from the wings, which was enough to make him the joint-second-highest scorer at the club.
Impressively, he has maintained that form into this year, and despite turning 35 at the start of the campaign, the "outrageous" winger, as described by Chelsea content creator Alex Goldberg, has bagged five goals and two assists in just 27 appearances.
Now, he obviously wouldn't be a regular starter under Pochettino this season, but he would undoubtedly be a valuable squad player both for his on-pitch output and his off-pitch guidance for Chelsea's promising crop of youngsters.
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Who knows, when Willian's contract runs out with Fulham in the summer, he might opt to have one last go of it at the Bridge.
