Chelsea put up a poor display in the London derby against Arsenal which resulted in an embarrassing 4-2 defeat at Stamford Bridge.
It was an overall poor display from the team in general with the majority of the blame going to the coach, Thomas Tuchel for his poor selection.
Some players performed worse than others but one that particularly stood out for all the wrong reasons was Malang Sarr.
The 23-year-old French centre back has only played six Premier League games this season and it was clear to see why that was the case.
Sarr only played because Chelsea’s starting left centre back, Antonio Rudiger was unavailable due to injury which is a problem because Chelsea does not have adequate cover in that position.
Rudiger and Sarr are the only two natural left centre backs in that squad and the game against Arsenal proves that the young Frenchman cannot be relied upon.
This is why Chelsea needs to replace him with a similar player who has better abilities and none fits this description better than Nigerian international, Calvin Bassey.
22-year old Bassey is similar to Sarr in the sense that he is young and left-footed which means he could easily slot into Chelsea’s left side.
Much like Sarr, Bassey can play as a left centre back and left-back as well and he has a similarly imposing physical frame although slightly taller than Sarr.
Bassey played predominantly as a left-back for Rangers until the arrival of Giovanni Van Bronckhorst who replaced Steven Gerrard after departing for Aston Villa.
It was Van Bronckhorst who saw the Bassey’s potential to play in the left centre back role in a three-man defence set-up, exactly what Chelsea currently operates.
Bassey would make a much better understudy to Rudiger as he shares the German’s ability to stride forward with the ball from deep areas.
Unlike Sarr, Bassey is not timid or jittery on the ball, he moves with confidence similar to Rudiger and is comfortable with the ball at his feet, making short passes or longer diagonals.
It would be nice for Chelsea to actually have a left-footed centre back they can rely on, Malang Sarr has had his chance and failed to grab that spot for himself.
With Rudiger’s future at Chelsea still unclear, the club has to act fast and move with precision to land Bassey either as his understudy or his replacement.