A new Chelsea star has admitted that he has struggled to find his form after joining the club for £54million this summer.
The Blues sealed 13 signings this summer and spent in the region of £200million to bolster Enzo Maresca’s squad.
Such an influx of talent into an already bloated squad has seen big-money players struggle for minutes.
Pedro Neto, who joined for £54m from Wolves, is one such player.
The 24-year-old winger bagged his first goal for the club in the 5-0 rout of Barrow in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night, having mostly been limited to outings off the bench prior to the third-round game.
Pedro Neto has admitted that he ‘is not at his level’ following an inconsistent start at Chelsea
The winger scored his first goal for the Blues in the 5-0 demolition of Barrow on Wednesday
‘At the moment, I’m not at my level, but I’m getting there,’ he told The Standard. ‘I know that I will arrive at my top form and I will enjoy it.
‘I continue to work. I continue to work on my confidence, on my football, on the adaptation, and I hope to be [at full fitness] as soon as I can.’
Neto’s career in the Premier League has been blighted by injuries and there were concerns that his fitness record would deny him a move to a top club.
Last season he suffered two separate hamstring injuries which kept him out for a combined four months.
Maresca is blessed with choice on the left wing, with Neto, Jadon Sancho, Mykhailo Mudryk, and even Christopher Nkunku competing for minutes on the flank.
‘When you arrive at a big club, it’s a new adaptation,’ said Neto. ‘Maybe in Wolverhampton, I was going to play maybe 90 per cent of the games.
‘Here, I have to work even more or maybe I’ll not play because the coach will rotate the players. It makes you play even better because you know that you have to work.
‘With the amount of quality that we have here, no one can sleep. As the coach has said: “Everyone will not play every game”.
The Portuguese star swapped Wolves for west London in a £54million move this summer
Enzo Maresca is blessed with a wealth of attacking options and he has rotated a lot so far
‘We have to work hard and make for ourselves and continue to do it every weekend, every training session, every game. It’s the mentality that I hope can take us to the top.’
Chelsea’s next fixture is at home to Brighton this Saturday and they will start their journey in the Europa Conference League group stages against Belgian side Gent next week, having scraped past Servette of Switzerland in qualifying.