The Blues booked our place in the third round of this season’s Carabao Cup – where we will take on old rivals Leeds United – by defeating Luton 2-0 at Stamford Bridge on Thursday evening.

Estevao played a key role in our victory. The Brazil international had a hand in both our goals and earned 34 per cent of votes in our Player of the Match ballot on the Chelsea Official App. Here's why...

Change of shape

Having come off the bench in our Premier League opener away at Fulham, Estevao was handed his chance to impress new manager Xabi Alonso from the start in our first home game of 2026/27.

That came as Alonso shifted to a 4-2-3-1 shape for his starting line-up – and it is a system that suits the Brazilian winger well.

Operating on the right, Estevao was able to drift inside onto his left foot. Along with Morgan Rogers doing the same on the opposite flank, the two wide men were able to link up with Cole Palmer and striker Danny Welbeck ahead of him to overload Luton’s defence in the centre of the pitch.

Estevao’s movement from that right-wing also created space for the marauding Malo Gusto to use his pace to overlap into promising crossing positions and create chances.

It was that which led to Chelsea’s opening goal shortly after half-time, when Estevao and Gusto combined well to give the Frenchman the chance to deliver a dangerous cross from wide, headed in by Welbeck to give the striker his first goal for the club.

Final-third impact

Chelsea dominated the ball against our League One opponents; clear from our 65.7 per cent share of possession on the night. It allowed us to take the game to Luton and play high up the pitch, giving Estevao ample opportunity to operate where he does best, causing problems deep into opposition territory.

As always, the Brazilian’s ability when running with the ball was a big part of that. His five dribbles were the most of any player on the pitch and he successfully completed four of them, also the highest number of the game.

He had the end product to make those dribbles count too, with his six crosses the most of any player and five chances created, the joint-best alongside Palmer.

Palmer was also the only player to register more than Estevao’s four shots across the 90 minutes, and it was one of those by the latter which made our victory safe, when the Brazilian’s low drive was deflected in off Luton defender Hakeem Odoffin, officially being recorded as an own goal.