Chelsea have recorded yet another win under Thomas Tuchel without Hakim Ziyech.
After recovering from an injury that delayed his start to life in England following his £33.4m transfer from Ajax last summer, the 27-year-old caught the eye in his first few appearances.
In fact, Ziyech was quickly making up for lost time to establish himself as a key player for Chelsea under former head coach Frank Lampard.
Arguably his most impressive display came in the 4-1 win over Sheffield United in November as he not only claimed two assists for Ben Chilwell and Thiago Silva, but also created a total of six chances for his teammates and was responsible for an outrageous piece of skill that sent a number of Blues fans crazy.
However, the Morocco international been affected by the managerial change which has seen Tuchel replace Lampard.
Ziyech started Tuchel’s first game as Blues head coach against Wolves, but hasn’t played a minute of Premier League football since with fears that he may not fully fit into the former PSG boss’ 3-4-2-1 system.
He did get a chance to impress the German in the FA Cup fifth-round win over Barnsley last week, but clearly didn’t do enough to keep his place for the visit of Newcastle United on Monday night.
Tuchel kept faith with Timo Werner and Mason Mount in the two supporting roles behind Tammy Abraham – who went off injured – and was rewarded with goals from Olivier Giroud and Werner.
Meanwhile, Ziyech remained an unused substitute and doesn’t seem to be in Tuchel’s Premier League plans at the moment.
As seen in the post above, following Tuchel’s latest snub, Ziyech has been active on social media.
Although, it hasn’t been to discuss not making an appearance against the Magpies, but rather to update his followers over what PlayStation game he is currently playing.
“Nuketownnnnnnn,” Ziyech wrote on Instagram.
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Ziyech wasn’t the only high-profile player not to be used against Newcastle as Christian Pulisic was also an unused substitute, with Tuchel revealing the winger was close to starting.
“Today, the first change was already made in the first half from injury and Christian was a very tight decision if he starts again after the cup game, or if he comes on from the bench,” the German revealed in his post-match press conference.
“We decided for another eleven to start. Unfortunately, we only had three changes which makes it very difficult to give time to the players, to let everybody play, and to have an impact with the changes of fresh legs. That makes it difficult and the third change we didn’t want to use too early.
“During the match, we did what we normally do which is to only change to win the match. He deserves to start, or to come in but I could only use three guys. I hope he keeps on going and he will make an important impact for us in the future.”
