Benoît Badiashile ‘very happy’ to make season debut for Chelsea and mark it with a goal

Benoît Badiashile was one of the few players to emerge from last season with any real credit, following his January move from AS Monaco.

As one of our lesser-heralded signings, the tall left-footed center back, just 21 at the time, settled into Premier League football without missing a beat, impressing with his physical play and smooth technique on and off the ball. Though limited to just eleven appearances, he would finish as the third highest rated player in our Community Player Ratings behind Thiago Silva and Reece James.

And to prove just how Proper Chels he had quickly become, Badiashile would finish the season with an injury, ruling him out of the U21 Euros with France as well. In fact, that hamstring problem would linger well into the current season, well beyond the initially expected prognosis.

But Big Bada B.B. was back, and back in a big way against Blackburn on Wednesday, not only making his season debut but getting Chelsea on the scoreboard with a (rare) set piece goal. We don’t score many of those — we don’t score many, period — which made it even sweeter. (Incidentally, former Monaco cohort Axel Disasi has scored our only set piece goal in the Premier League so far this season, the equalizer against Liverpool in the first game, which is a terrible return indeed considering the dozens and dozens of corners and free kicks we’ve collected. But anyway...)

Badiashile was obviously delighted with the goal, his second for the club, as well as the victory that put is into the final eight of this year’s League Cup competition.

“I’m so happy to be able to help the team with this goal,’ Badiashile said after the win. ‘It has been a difficult period for me because I’ve not been on the pitch, but I’m very happy to now be back with the team.”

“As players, you have to be focused on the next game [but] a win is always something great for the feeling. It was a tough game but we got the win. That is what’s most important.”

-Benoît Badiashile; source: Chelsea FC

Indeed, winning, that is the most important. However, these days the process of winning and the process of building a consistently winning team are possibly just as important.

We expect Badiashile to be a key part of that going forward, this season and well beyond.