Becoming a member of Chelsea’s rather controversial loan system last season, Charly Musonda finally made his debut for the Blues on Sunday in his side’s Community Shield loss on penalties at the hands of Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal.
Coming off the bench for the final eight minutes of the game, the 20-year-old spoke to DH after the game about the experience, and seemed very keen to not let it be his last.
He said: “I’m happy to have finally been able to get my first minutes. I came on in difficult circumstances. We’d just had a man sent off and the priority was to keep the draw by defending. Everything is possible on penalties. It’s not the end of the world.
“I’m going to continue to work like I’ve always done. My manager is saying the right things to encourage me. I hope this little sample will be repeated because I want to assert myself here even if it will be hard, but a season is a very long time”.
With the club since his 2012 move from Anderlecht’s youth for over £2m, Musonda has had to wait five years to finally wear Chelsea’s colours in a competitive first-team game.
The young forward is, of course, very familiar with the club’s reserves, and was sent out on loan to Real Betis last year; a spell which, despite starting off well, ended in the player returning to London with a knee injury.
He only made eight appearances and picked up one assist during his time in La Liga.
