Werner displays best performance in Chelsea shirt as Blues beat Luton Town to advance in FA Cup

Chelsea had very little time to recover from their Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool on Sunday. That’s because they had to take on Luton Town on Wednesday evening for a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

The Blues ran Liverpool close in Sunday’s final, and had the better chances. However, their wastefulness eventually cost them as the Reds triumphed 11-10 in an epic shootout where Chelsea’s substitute goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga produced the only miss.

Just three days later, Thomas Tuchel’s side found themselves staring at another defeat when they were a goal down inside the opening three minutes at Kenilworth Road. However, a much-changed Blues side twice recovered from a goal down to beat the Championship team 3-2 to make the last eight of the FA Cup.

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Chelsea striker Timo Werner stars against Luton Town

Romelu Lukaku grabbed the winner late in the game. That was after goals from Saul Niguez and Timo Werner had cancelled out strikes from Luton Town’s Reece Burke and Harry Cornick. However, the Belgian striker was far from Chelsea’s best player on the night.

That honour belonged to Werner, who has endured a tough time at Stamford Bridge, but was at his best on Wednesday. The 25-year-old was involved in all three goals, scoring one and assisting the other two.

Despite playing on the flanks, Werner was a menace to the Luton Town defence. The German constantly made his presence felt when he had the ball. It was, therefore, no surprise when he was adjudged the Man of the Match.

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Werner’s best performance of the season

Overall, it has been a Jekyll and Hyde kind of season for Werner, who has scored just seven goals in 24 games across competitions for the Blues this term.

Nevertheless, the Germany international played his best game of the season against Luton Town. His confidence was over the roof, and he was equally productive in the final third.

“I’m happy with my performance. I got my goal and made a couple of assist,s and I tried to help the team as much as I can, and we managed to get the win at the end, so everything is good,” Werner said after the game, as quoted by Chelseafc.com.

He continued:

“It was a very good ball from Ruben, and my first touch was okay for me as it gave me the space I needed to shoot. Maybe I had a little bit of luck that it went against the post and then into the net rather than bouncing away, but I’m happy to have scored and help the team.”

Werner added:

‘It’s been a challenging week. We’ve gone from playing in front of 90,000 at Wembley in a cup final to coming here and playing in front of 10,000 which seemed like a cup final for Luton because of the atmosphere they created.

‘Both of the games were difficult to play in so after losing on Sunday, we wanted to show that we could recover straightaway and get back to winning ways and we managed to do that.

Speculation has been rife over Werner’s future at Stamford Bridge due to his reduced role in recent games. He was brought in the summer of 2020 to be the team’s main striker, but his lack of goals forced the Blues to sign Lukaku last year.

However, with the Belgian also struggling, the no.9 spot is still up for grabs. Following Werner’s latest imperious performance, he could stake a claim for more playing time for now.

Chelsea and Werner will next be in action in the Premier League when they travel to Burnley on Saturday.