Ross Barkley, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Fikayo Tomori made eight appearances between them in 2020/21, the latter accounting for half of those as he remained at Stamford Bridge until a January loan move to AC Milan.

The midfield duo featured fleetingly before Barkley joined Aston Villa and Loftus-Cheek moved across the capital to Fulham late in the summer transfer window.

Early involvement

Barkley featured in our first three games of the season before making the temporary switch to Villa Park. The midfielder came off the bench against Brighton and Liverpool before scoring in the Carabao Cup against Barnsley, profiting from Kai Havertz stealing the ball high up and then advancing towards goal before steering a composed left-footed finish into the bottom corner.

Loftus-Cheek, meanwhile, started on the opening night down on the South Coast, lining up alongside Jorginho and N’Golo Kante in central midfield. Yet that hour proved to be his only involvement of the campaign for the Blues prior to a move across south-west London to Craven Cottage.

Reinforcing defence

Tomori’s first appearance of the campaign came in our opening home encounter with Liverpool, the young defender replacing Havertz at the interval following Andreas Christensen’s red card late in the half.

With a numerical disadvantage, he and our other defenders were unable to keep the defending champions at bay for long and a Sadio Mane brace condemned Frank Lampard’s side to an early-season defeat.

While Tomori continued to deputise in two of our three following outings, the Carabao Cup thumping of Barnsley and penalty shoot-out defeat at Tottenham, he then found himself out of the side amid stiff competition from Andreas Christensen, Toni Rudiger, Kurt Zouma and the newly-signed Thiago Silva at centre-back.

The Chelsea Academy graduate’s final game for the Blues came as a late substitute in January’s FA Cup victory against Morecambe. A fortnight later, he had moved on loan to Italy with AC Milan, a switch that was made permanent this summer.

Ross Barkley 2020/21 Chelsea stats

Appearances: 3Starts: 1Substituted: 0Unused sub: 2Minutes played: 138Goals: 1Assists: 0

Ruben Loftus-Cheek 2020/21 Chelsea stats

Appearances: 1Starts: 1Substituted: 1Unused sub: 0Minutes played: 65Goals: 0Assists: 0

Fikayo Tomori 2020/21 Chelsea stats

Appearances: 4Starts: 2Substituted: 0Unused sub: 10Minutes played: 246Goals: 0Assists: 0

Ross Barkley Premier League appearances 2020/21

Ross Barkley played two games in the Premier League for Chelsea this season, both of them as a substitute.

Ross Barkley Carabao Cup appearances 2020/21

Ross Barkley made one appearance in the Carabao Cup this season.

Ross Barkley goals 2020/21

Ross Barkley scored one goal for Chelsea this season.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek Premier League appearances 2020/21

Ruben Loftus-Cheek played one game in the Premier League for Chelsea this season.

Fikayo Tomori Premier League appearances 2020/21

Fikayo Tomori made one appearance in the Premier League for Chelsea this season.

Fikayo Tomori FA Cup appearances 2020/21

Fikayo Tomori played one game in the FA Cup this season.

Fikayo Tomori Carabao Cup appearances 2020/21

Fikayo Tomori made two appearances in the Carabao Cup this season, both from the start.