Ben Chilwell’s brilliant goalscoring form in October has seen him nominated for the EA Sports Premier League Player of the Month award.
The 24-year-old becomes the third Chelsea defender to be shortlisted for the prize this season already, underlining our excellent start to the campaign at the back in which we have conceded just three league goals.
Only one of those came last month, in the 3-1 home victory against Southampton, with Thomas Tuchel’s men claiming a clean sheet in each of our other three matches.
Chilwell made his first Premier League appearance of 2021/22 in that win over the Saints at the start of the month, rounding off the scoring late on with a thumping left-footed strike after starting at left wing-back.
The England international kept his place in the team for the trip to Brentford, netting the only goal of the game with another powerful drive and helping us thwart a late barrage from the Bees to take all three points back across the capital.
A week later, there were far fewer attacking problems posed by our opponents as the Blues ran riot against Norwich City at Stamford Bridge, allowing Chilwell to continue his prolific streak in front of goal by notching our fourth in a 7-0 triumph. Once again, a swing of that trusty left foot did the damage.
Taking into account his goal on the final day of last season away at Aston Villa, he became the first Chelsea player since Eden Hazard in 2016 to score in four consecutive Premier League games for the club. Unfortunately, that run came to an end at Newcastle last weekend but another successful shutout helped us open up a three-point lead at the top of the table.
Chilwell follows Marcos Alonso and Antonio Rudiger in being nominated for the individual player award this term. No Blues defender has won the prize for over a decade.
In competition with our number 21 this month are Maxwel Cornet (Burnley), Phil Foden (Man City), Tino Livramento (Southampton), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal), Declan Rice (West Ham), Mo Salah (Liverpool) and Chilwell’s former Leicester City team-mate Youri Tielemans.
Voting is open now and closes at 12 noon on Monday 8 November. The winner will be announced at the end of that week.