Joao Pedro has vowed to do one thing for his Chelsea teammate Moises Caicedo after he helped end his nine-game goal drought in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Tottenham.
Summer signing Pedro started life at Stamford Bridge with two goals in his first three Premier League matches, but had failed to find the net since August before his 34th-minute winner in north London.
Pedro, who was thwarted three more times by Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, was indebted to Caicedo after winning possession from Micky van de Ven and prodding the Chelsea striker to fire home.
Caicedo was later described as two of the best defensive midfielders in the world by boss Enzo Maresca along with Manchester City’s Rodri.
Pedro’s plans for Caicedo after Chelsea win
Brazilian striker Pedro echoed the sentiment and reflected on the importance of his goal in a period where he has struggled to train due to unspecified fitness issues and plans to take Caicedo out to dinner following his assist.
“Moises, everyone knows he is a very high level player,” Pedro said.
“It’s a pleasure to play with him and when he passes me the pass on the pitch, at halftime I said I have to invite you to dinner, so yeah, I just want to say thank you.
“Thanks to the team for their support. I scored but I still need to improve. I had a lot of chances, but we won the game.
“I think I needed this goal after a long period of not scoring for Chelsea and I think the team expects (goals) from me, so I just want to say thank you to Moises, thank you to the team and now we have to enjoy this victory.”
Chelsea’s fifth consecutive win at Tottenham helped them bounce back from a shock 2-1 home defeat to Sunderland on October 25.
It helped restore momentum to Maresca’s talented but young side ahead of a midweek trip to Qarabag in the Champions League and Saturday’s visit to bottom-of-the-table Wolves.
Pedro added: “I think it was a big game, a derby and we know they are a good team.
“We knew we had to do our best to win this kind of game and we did it. We won the game and now we have to look forward.”
Tottenham head coach Thomas Frank has major issues to resolve in attack after recording an XG (expected goals) figure of 0.05 – the lowest the club has recorded since records began in the 2012-13 season.
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What won’t help Frank’s cause is the likely absence of Lucas Bergvall for Tuesday’s visit to Copenhagen, after he was forced off with a suspected concussion early in the defeat to Chelsea.
“It was a concussion, so there was no way he could stay and I think the medical team did a good job on that,” Frank said.
“And even if he wanted to stay, it’s the right decision.”
“Of course we would have loved for him to continue. That’s why we chose him in the starting XI.
“Unfortunately it couldn’t happen. So others will step in. Xavi (Simons) knew the game plan.”
