London is Blue Dispatch #067

It wasn’t a sight any Chelsea fan had seen before. After a poor opening 15 minutes, Mudryk collected on the left wing, came inside and unleashed his side’s first shot of the game, one that cleared the bar by some distance. Under usual circumstances, the Ukrainian would turn away from his teammates’ disapproving glares or bow his head and raise his hand in embarrassment. This time, he looked straight back across the pitch, livid, and fired back at a teammate moaning about his shot.

His time at Chelsea has anything but easy for Mudryk, but the past few weeks must have felt especially agonizing. Rumours of the club eager to loan him out, dropped from the squad for Liverpool altogether – all felt like sparks that lit the fuse to a footballer whose Instagram stories usually show him gaming by himself, eating ramen alone or pumping iron by himself at the gym. Which is why his retaliation seemed utterly out-of-character for a shy, largely docile persona, but may very well have lit the fuse for what would follow.

Earlier in the week, Shakhtar’s General Director took aim at Chelsea’s treatment of his former protégé. “You don't need a Ferrari if you don't know how to drive it,” Palkin told Goal and SPOX earlier in the week. “A normal car will do. If you buy a Ferrari, you should think about how to handle it. That's my opinion on Mudryk at Chelsea.”

Palkin couldn’t have been further from the truth. Against Panathinaikos, he and the Greek Gods may well have demanded Mudryk channel his inner Hermes - winged helmet & winged sandals blitzing past all in his way. But Mudryk’s biggest issue often is that he drives his Ferrari too quickly for his own good. Watch a compilation of his take ons, and the final action almost always lacks the kind of control and assuredness it did back at Shakhtar, where he made the likes of Real sweat in the Champions League.

Mudryk’s first breakthrough moment was the opposite of speed – breaching the box, then la pausa, timing his pass to perfection for Felix to guide into the far corner. His second big moment radiated that largely elusive pause too, this time delaying his action a second longer before laying it off in central space for an Enzo Fernandez shot that stung Dragowski’s palms.

In Jiro Dreams of Sushi, one of the characters says this about making the perfect sushi – every ingredient has an ideal moment of deliciousness. The same idea applies to every decision an attacker can make, and haste ruins the recipe altogether, a mistake Misha makes rustratingly often.

At Leicester, Abdul Issahaku-Fatawu credited Maresca with urging him to score more, demanding that he arrive in the box for headers. That may have played a part in Mudryk doing what he seldom does, and making an excellent run at the far post to score a rare header. He pointed straight to Maresca right after and gave him a quick hug, which may as well have screamed “thank you for the advice.”

While Panathinaikos away in the Conference League may not have been the stage that offers a definitive turning point, it did offer a wonderful glimpse into a gloriously complicated footballer. Only 2,500 kms away from home in Krasnohrad, with the Parthenon in all its glory looming on the horizon, it was nice to see the 24-year-old channeling the magic everyone knew lies somewhere deep within, stating that he can be fast AND furious, that the calm is finally giving way to a storm. We’ve all been here before, with Andriy Shevchenko, with Fernando Torres, with Kai Havertz, waiting for the pieces to fall into place for the prodigy. Newcastle in the cup cannot come any sooner.