UK Edition
Amid a transfer market now where players deemed “average” by the likes of Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger can cost as much as £40 million, the Chelsea hierarchy could be forgiven for feeling a certain smugness whenever they watch Pedro play.
Bought from under the noses of Manchester United from Barcelona in 2015 for £19 million, there is something in his diminutive physical stature and understated demeanour that risks slipping under the radar, but any objective analysis surely now places Pedro among the best value attacking arrivals of recent times.
He took less than five minutes here to put Chelsea into the lead and he has now scored 14 goals for the club from what is usually a wide and deeper-lying attacking position over the past 11 months. And yet, just as at Barcelona, it is his wider team play that makes him so valued by his team-mates.
A decade in Catalonia alongside the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta brings the guarantee of a certain technical level but what coaches like Pep Guardiola and now Antonio Conte clearly so appreciate is his work out of possession. Pedro is one of the few Chelsea players who even Conte rarely berates, quite simply because he has usually already sprinted back and pressurised his opponent before there has been time to start hollering.
This work ethic was what indirectly led to Chelsea’s third here, with Donald Guerrier harried relentlessly inside his own half by Pedro and subsequently unable simply to get the ball out of his own half. Guardiola even said last year that Pedro was one player who had made him a better manager during his career.
“At Barcelona he showed us the importance of pressing high - he’s a player that moves well between the lines and in the area he’s a killer,” said Guardiola.
That Pedro was the player immediately substituted here once the game had been clinched was a clear sign that Conte also intends to start him against Arsenal on Saturday after he was virtually ever-present in the Premier League last season.
We should hardly be surprised by his wider impact. Pedro was only 28 when he came to Chelsea in 2015 after being part of Spain and Barcelona teams who had won quite simply won everything that matters in football. Pedro’s relative importance in those triumphs can be debated, but his track record also brings something else very important just now to Chelsea.
The departure of John Terry clearly represented the end of an era on multiple levels but perhaps most significant of all was simply the loss of another big player with so much past winning experience.
More of that has also departed over recent months in Nemanja Matic and Diego Costa but the sheer presence of a player like Pedro will be vital this season amid the competing demands of the Champions League. This is a transitional moment for Chelsea and, for all his flair, Pedro has increasingly becoming the on-field embodiment of Conte’s relentless intensity.
Pedro continues to prove he is Chelsea's - and one of the Premier League's - best value signings in recent years