Chelsea have not played many Premier League games recently - they have been busy winning the World Club Championship and Cup games - but when they did, they got Hakim Zeich at his peak.
Against Crystal Palace on Saturday, the Moroccan scored a winning goal in the 89th minute, and for the first time completed three consecutive league games with a goal, having also done so against Brighton and Tottenham.
Some would say that this is not such an impressive sequence - after all, Mason Mount has won this season in four consecutive rounds - but everything is relative.
And in the case of Zeich, the ratio is that by the beginning of 2022 his balance this season stood at only one league goal.
Today, with this balance at four, he admits: "For the last two months I have been in excellent shape and have enjoyed football very much. This is probably my best time at Chelsea."
You have to take risks
Zeich is probably right.
Last week, exactly two years have passed since the deal that brought him to London from Ajax for € 40 million was closed, and it is hard to say that the ability he demonstrated lived up to expectations.
Alongside record moments like the winning goal against Manchester City in the Cup semi-final last season, and the goal that helped the Blues win the first European Super Cup in 23 years, Zaich did not really deliver the goods.
There were some injuries along the way, but even when he was fit - the Moroccan midfielder failed to restore the miraculous ability he displayed in the Ajax uniform.
Lukaku.
Not hurting recently, Photo: Reuters
He finished the previous season with six goals in all competitions, two of them in the league and two in the Champions League, and he also started the current season in a stuttering manner.
It was only in December that he scored his first league goal, in a win over Watford, when he finished the home leg of the Champions League with a lone conquest against Malmo.
The appointment of Thomas Tuchel in place of Frank Lampard did not bode well either with Zeich, who was highly regarded by the English manager and less so by the German.
The situation has led to the fact that ahead of the January transfer window it was reported that Borussia Dortmund are interested in Moroccan, and that such a deal could be successful for all parties.
Zeich is known to have remained, and in recent months he and Tuchel seem to have learned to understand each other.
The German manager uses him as a right winger when the team plays in a 1: 4: 1: 4 formation, and from there came his last goals in the league and cup.
In contrast, in the final of the World Club Championship against Palmeiras, Chelsea played in a set of three brakes, so the Moroccan started the game on the bench and came in only in extra time.
There it was his corner kick that led to Kai Haberz's winning penalty.
"He has to play in a position that allows him to take risks when you can take risks," Tuchel explained.
In recent weeks, when Mount, Lukaku and Habaretz are not hurting the league games, and when Chelsea are lacking their defenders and having a hard time playing in Tuchel's preferred style, Zaich has been there with important goals and high ability.
Suddenly his abilities as a winger matched Tuchel's requirements, and according to the team's fans - Zeich is Chelsea's best player since the start of the year.
Gets a canned boost.
"It should continue like this," Photo: Reuters
Concentrated but only at Chelsea
The 28-year-old Zeich made this break at the same time as announcing his retirement from the Moroccan national team.
He saw the African Championship from home following a dispute with coach and Ehid Khalilodic, and a few weeks ago declared: "I am sad but this is the final decision. My focus from now on is solely at Chelsea."
And tonight (Tuesday, 22:00) this focus will shift to the Champions League and the first game against Lille in the quarterfinals.
After last year being a minor figure in the Blues' win - in the final he is not a partner and in the semi-finals he played 26 minutes - the Moroccan is determined to be a key part of Chelsea's attempt to retain the title.
"I want to continue to win degrees," he declared this week, "that's what I came to do here."
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