Gary Neville has praised Mykhailo Mudryk for being “brave” in the build up to Chelsea’s winning goal.
The Blues returned to winning ways in the Premier League last night with a 3-2 win over Newcastle to close the gap on the top seven to four points with a game in hand.
Nicolas Jackson’s flick opened the scoring before Alexander Isak equalised but second half goals from Cole Palmer and Mudryk helped Chelsea over the line before Jacob Murphy’s thunderbolt set up a nervy finish.
Mauricio Pochettino’s decision to replace the ineffective Raheem Sterling with Mudryk in the second half proved to be a game winning decision.
The Ukrainian has struggled for regular game time despite showing glimpses of what he can do, but the winger showed what he was all about with his electric pace and quick feet which lead to the deciding goal.
Neville was full of praise for the 23 year old on commentary and said: “Well, he’s been lively since he came on, Mudryk for Raheem Sterling. He was positive, he was brave, he took it off Conor Gallagher.
“It was initially Jackson down that the left hand side. He plays it into Gallagher, he doesn’t even know Mudryk’s there, he just gets disposed by his own player.”
“But Mudryk, he can just sneak it through the legs of Schar, the big Newcastle centre back, and he has that composure to take it round the goalkeeper. Sometimes he’s not the best in the final moment, but this was really good.”
Mudryk will be hoping his cameo from the bench will be enough to see him in the starting line up for Sunday’s FA Cup quarter final against Leicester.
