Paul Merson has been waxing lyrical about one Chelsea player after his side’s 2-1 win against Bournemouth.
Mauricio Pochettino‘s men managed to get the job done on the last day of the season.
Chelsea went into their game against Bournemouth knowing that a draw would have been enough to finish in sixth.
They went one better than that and managed to win the game. Had Tottenham Hotspur lost their match with Sheffield United, the Blues would have finished in fifth.
Chelsea will take sixth, though, after spending most of the campaign in mid-table. However, it was still a bit of a sad day for Thiago Silva, who played his last game for the club. He now hopes to see his two sons play for the first team in the future.
Paul Merson awestruck by Chelsea star after Bournemouth game
Chelsea have a lot of good footballers in their squad, which includes Silva and Cole Palmer, though the former will not be around next season.
Merson could not help but laud one of them after the Bournemouth match.
He took to X and said “what a player” when speaking about Silva while describing the central defender as a “professional”.
Silva, who earns £110,000 a week (Spotrac), has made 155 appearances in a Chelsea shirt and won the Champions League, Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup during his four-year spell at Stamford Bridge.
Thiago Silva’s stats for the 2023/24 season
Silva finishes this campaign having played 38 games and scored four goals. That is really impressive for someone who turns 40 this year.
When it comes to clearances, the Brazilian has averaged the most in Pochettino’s squad. According to WhoScored, his average of 4.8 per game in the Premier League is higher than any other player in blue.
His passing has not been bad either. In fact, if you exclude Deivid Washington, who only has 11 minutes under his belt, Silva also has the highest passing accuracy at Stamford Bridge (94.8%).