Chelsea: Joao Pedro ready to break striker curse as Blues' £60m summer signing opens account on full debut | OneFootball

The striker’s Chelsea career is off to the perfect start

Your matchday briefing on Chelsea, featuring team news and expert analysis from Malik Ouzia

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Pedro was imperious; his understanding with Pedro Neto on the left wing so fluid you hardly knew which Pedro to focus on. This looked to be a relationship built over many years, not mere days.

Fluminense defender Thiago Silva, the bastion of the last truly indomitable Chelsea side, could only watch on like a captain going down solemnly with his ship as Chelsea’s forwards, all pace and punch, zipped past him with gleeful abundance.

Maresca described Pedro's freedom as a massive part of what makes him such a unique talent. The Brazilian played with a weightlessness that so few Chelsea strikers over the years have been able to embody, and he capped a fine performance with a superb goal off the underside of the crossbar just before the hour mark.

Joao Pedro scored two stunning goals on his full Chelsea debut

Getty Images

If there's one constant at Chelsea, it's that change is always on the horizon, and Pedro is the latest hotshot attacking talent to be tasked with spearheading the Blues' frontline. For now, he is the man in Vogue, to stay that way, he'll have to avoid the pitfalls of those who've gone before him.

Nicolas Jackson, his replacement from the bench after 60 minutes, has dropped out of favour after successive red cards against Newcastle United and Flamengo.

Meanwhile, Liam Delap, who'll know only too well how Pedro feels after he scored on just his second start for Chelsea earlier in the Club World Cup, was suspended against Fluminense for accumulating two yellow cards. He, too, has a hot-headedness to his game that Maresca will want to iron out.

Pedro's combustible nature is well documented. He was involved in a training ground bust-up at Brighton following a dispute with Jan Paul van Hecke and was awarded a red card away to Brentford in April for violent conduct.

Pedro may have put his altercation with van Hecke down to the pair's competitive personalities. But in a Chelsea team trying desperately to mature, such impetuousness will be quickly snuffed out. Just ask Jackson.

All that, for now, though, is immaterial as Pedro has shown himself to be more than capable of leading the line for Maresca's quietly impressive young squad, who find themselves in yet another final.