Sergio Reguilon made his debut for Tottenham in Tuesday night’s EFL Cup win over Chelsea and delivered a fine performance over 90 minutes. The 23-year-old started at left-back and showcased exactly why Jose Mourinho brought him to North London. He made a mistake for Chelsea’s opener but more than made up for it by fulltime.
Reguilon’s impressive pace was on display, as was his attacking threat and composure on the ball. No Tottenham player had more touches, whipped in more crosses, gave away fewer fouls, made more dribbles or had more interceptions than the Spanish international on the night either, so his first appearance could hardly have gone better.
Deadly in attack, excellent in defence
Timo Werner opened the scoring for Chelsea after Cesar Azpilicueta beat Reguilon and squared the ball for Werner to fire home from the edge of the penalty area, but things got better for him as the game went on. Reguilon overtook seven players as he chased down Callum Hudson-Odoi to thwart a counter-attack and he whipped in the cross for Erik Lamela to covert for our equaliser.
As per WhoScored, the 23-year-old made 69 touches, won one aerial duel, completed 73.7% of his 38 passes, created one chance which ended up an assist, had two shots with 50% hitting the target, whipped in four crosses with 25% finding a teammate, attempted seven long balls with 28.5% accuracy, made one clearance, had five interceptions, made one tackle, didn’t give away a foul, won two free-kicks and had three dribbles.
Bad news for Ben Davies and Ryan Sessegnon
Reguilon’s performance is bad news for Davies and Sessegnon. I questioned why we needed to sign another left-back with three on the books (if you include Danny Rose), but he does look a vast improvement on what we’ve got.
Davies has started all three of our Premier League games this season, but his place may be up for grabs. Sessegnon doesn’t stand a chance of playing and looks likely to be loaned out.
Brighton & Hove Albion, Southampton, Hertha Berlin, Leeds United and Ajax have shown the most interest in Sessegnon, but Celtic are the latest to be linked too, so he should have his pick of clubs to choose from.
Reguilon looks the real deal.
In other news, Tottenham could sign Antonio Rudiger if their pursuit of Milan Skriniar falls through