The ritual that has helped 11G/A Chelsea star take his place among league's best midfielders

Yesterday at 12:00 PM

Chelsea's star of the season is Cole Palmer, of course. It's always going to be Cole Palmer. But yesterday the attacker was pretty well shackled by Manchester United's team shape, and the rest of the attack really didn't produce much.

Levi Colwill claimed in his interview with the Chelsea site that the Blues had created chances and just not taken them – but we'd have to say we were pretty disappointed with how many they created at all.

In the end, it fell to a defensive midfielder to get the ball into the net. Moises Caicedo had already been the best player on the pitch all day when the ball dropped to him from a corner. The fact he slammed it in first time only added to the story.

Caicedo quirk shows pure dedication which is taking him to the top

Caicedo's performance at Old Trafford has led to some hagiographies and plenty of long reads about his form today, with the sense that he's really hitting stride now in his second season at the club.

Kieran Gill of the Daily Mail had some really interesting information about the midfielder's tendencies post-game:

"Moises Caicedo watches back every game he plays with his own performance coach, someone not contracted to Chelsea. Improvement is shown by how few people mention his £115m price tag now. Best player on the pitch today, and not only because of the goal."

It's only a small thing – and perhaps we should expect this from every player given the stakes and given their wages. But it's no surprise that Caicedo is getting better if this is the sort of dedication he's showing every week.

Enzo Maresca has talked about doing private work with the Ecuador star, and that combined with this is clearly having an effect.