Even though most Blues supporters are bitterly disappointed in the manner in which they threw away the lead against Juventus several days ago, most are over the moon with new signing Oscar. The Brazilian made a memorable full debut for the club although despite scoring two goals, John Obi Mikel claims that his performance was nothing new and his teammates are used to seeing him pull off such strikes in training all the time.
After shelling out £25m for the player during the summer, there was always going to be plenty of expectation resting on Oscar’s shoulders. However, up until recently Blues fans had seen little of the 21-year-old, with fitness issues and international commitments meaning that he had been limited to brief appearances from the bench. Following on from that, few could catch their breath as they saw him take to the pitch on Wednesday evening and completely steal the show. He managed to score two goals, with the second being a strike of the highest order after he took two Juventus players out with one deft touch.
However, Mikel claims that he was fully expecting the young Brazilian to make such an impact at the club, although he did admit that he thought it would take time for him to adapt to the pace of his new environment. He told the media, “We have seen him in training smash balls in like that. We knew it was just a matter of time. The English game is not easy, it is very difficult to come in and straightaway adapt to it. It is going to take time for him. He’s making a great impact. He’s such a good player. He can only get better. He is going to be a great player for this club. We have all seen what he can do and hopefully he can keep going.”
Following on from the impressive full debut, it’ll be interesting to see if Oscar can help the Blues get back to winning ways in the clash against Stoke on Saturday afternoon.