Chelsea kept a clean sheet away from home in Europe against a free-scoring Ajax side last night, and much of that was down to the performances of both Fikayo Tomori and Kurt Zouma.
Tomori, in particular, had a few shaky moments early on in the game but he regained his composure and put in a shift along with his centre-back partner. Supporters on Twitter have been praising the pair:
Brick wall tonight ??
— SamCFC ? (@UTCSam) October 23, 2019
Zoom was impressive tbh.
— Andy 'Bambọ' Defresne (@b_winklevoss) October 23, 2019
Tomori MOTM
— Denis (@chiraq808) October 23, 2019
They are growing together very well
— Choko (@RichieChoko01) October 23, 2019
Rock solid
— O.E (@Ewan_Omoro) October 23, 2019
Tomori is the real deal
— Frenkiè (@HazardFever) October 23, 2019
I told y’all Zouma is better than Christiansen and since Chelsea been keeping clean sheets
— Mbappe issa GOAT (@odili_d) October 23, 2019
Maldini and Nesta shaking rn
— allnattty (@alll_natty) October 23, 2019
Whole team showed massive character. Hugely impressive.
— Jake B (@JakeAB89) October 23, 2019
Zouma has certainly upped his game since coming back into the side, and it will be interesting to see who manager Frank Lampard starts when both Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen are back fit.
With Tomori just 21 and Zouma 24 years of age, there is the makings of a long-term centre-half partnership there. Certainly, they are still learning and there will be mistakes from both players.
However, it is clear they have the ability and physicality to establish themselves as top defenders. If they put in more performances like last night, they will be hard to dislodge from the starting eleven.