Former Chelsea defender Ashley Cole has claimed that Saul Niguez will get more matches after seeing him perform well against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup.

However, while the Spaniard did impress Cole at Stamford Bridge yesterday evening, he doesn’t expect him to leapfrog above N’Golo Kante, Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic in the midfield pecking order:

“In terms of his overall performance and the worries and concerns people had around him, he’s done enough tonight to warrant that he should get more opportunities. But ultimately, the two or three players in front of him are playing so well so it will be very tough to get into this team.”

It does seem as though Niguez has finally turned a corner. The 27-year-old looked more like the player who had performed so well for Atletico Madrid over recent years, snapping into tackles and passing accurately to his teammates.

His lack of game time since his loan move in the summer suggests, however, that he still has a massive amount to do in order to convince manager Thomas Tuchel that he deserves to stay on a permanent basis.

As well as paying a £3.4m loan fee for Niguez, the Blues also have the option to buy the midfielder for £30m at the end of the season.