🇪🇸 3. Marc Cucurella

[Vesper 30,495]

Marc Cucurella is crucial for Chelsea – and enjoying the best spell of his career

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6844781/2025/11/29/marc-cucurella-chelse-analysis/

 

For Marc Cucurella, Chelsea’s clash with Barcelona was personal.

Cucurella’s history with Barcelona, the club he supports and one where he started his career, lent extra weight to this match. The Catalonia-born defender came through the youth ranks at Barcelona but never had a real opportunity in the first team and left without making a senior league appearance.

A source close to the player, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, says the Spaniard had a point to prove — and recognised an opportunity to draw attention from the Spanish media. Most of his Chelsea activity, though appreciated by fans of the club, does not cut through back in Spain in the same way as his performance in a match with Barcelona would.

Well, if there is one way to catch the attention of Spanish football, it is to stop Lamine Yamal.

That is what Cucurella achieved on Tuesday night. Much of the reaction to Chelsea’s 3-0 win has revolved around how Ballon d’Or runner-up and two-time Kopa Trophy winner Yamal was outshone by Chelsea’s Estevao, but it was Cucurella who snuffed out Yamal’s usual spark. The left-back limited his Spain team-mate, playing on the right wing, to three touches in Chelsea’s box and 0.07 xG.

Cucurella was also characteristically active in attack, drilling in the low cross that Jules Kounde eventually turned into his own net for Chelsea’s opener, and panicking Ronald Araujo into the challenge that saw Barcelona reduced to 10 men. The 27-year-old was named UEFA’s player of the match.

The source views this as the best moment in Cucurella’s career. Chelsea fans would not be surprised — they have seen his importance for a while now.

Even that, though, is quite the turnaround from where he once stood at Stamford Bridge. During Cucurella’s debut season with Chelsea in 2022-23, he was booed by his own supporters at times and held up as an example of Chelsea’s giddiness in the transfer market.

Now, every penny of that £63m deal to bring him in from Brighton & Hove Albion feels well spent. Cucurella has not only become popular; he has become irreplaceable.

Cucurella has played the most minutes of any Chelsea defender in all competitions this season, and is second only to Enzo Fernandez overall. The central defence has been extensively rotated, and Reece James and Malo Gusto have shared the right-back spot, but Cucurella has appeared in all of Chelsea’s games except their 5-1 drubbing of 10-man Ajax. Considering Maresca’s determination to rotate, his consistent presence is an outlier.

Part of that is due to a relative lack of cover. The only real left-back option behind Cucurella is Jorrel Hato, the 19-year-old who joined from Ajax for over €40m (£35m at current rates) this summer. Hato has plenty of senior experience in the Netherlands and is a bright prospect, but the drop-off when he replaces Cucurella in Chelsea’s defence is noticeable.

That is less criticism of Hato than praise of Cucurella. Hato has the makings of an excellent full-back. The problem is that Cucurella is not simply an excellent full-back: he is a box threat, wing-back, even box-to-box midfielder, as important to Chelsea in possession as out of possession.

The example below demonstrates his quality in attacking link-up and tight spaces. He pulls off a neat pass-and-move sequence at speed before driving into space in the left channel — panicking Araujo into what becomes his second bookable offence.

The pace that makes him an attacking threat — which he also uses to make well-timed runs in behind, often latching onto long balls from Moises Caicedo — helps ensure he does not let his defensive duties slide. Here, after over-committing high up the pitch and being turned by Yamal, he reacts swiftly to close down Eric Garcia and force a pass, before a recovery sprint that ends in him winning a foul from Fermin Lopez.

At 27, Cucurella is Chelsea’s third-oldest player (behind only Tosin Adarabioyo and Robert Sanchez). The fact that Chelsea value his experience is reflected in his heavy involvement on the pitch, but he is also valued off it. Sources with knowledge of the situation, who asked to be kept anonymous to protect relationships, told The Athletic he has been asked his thoughts on players the club are looking at signing. It is not unusual for the recruitment team to tap into players’ knowledge in this way.

Cucurella is close with other core players like Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, and Pedro Neto. But sources close to the player add that also enjoys helping younger players to settle into the club and city and that he feels like a leader at Chelsea.

Maresca spoke about how important Cucurella is on Friday. At his pre-Arsenal press conference he said: “He is one of the characters inside the building, the changing room. He has the capacity to switch from laughing or joking to being serious.

“When you have players like Marc, the more you have, the better it is.”

He might have caught the attention of Spanish football with his performance against Barcelona — but does not envisage a move back to a Spanish club. When asked in a press conference before the match whether he felt he had proven he could have played for Barcelona, Cucurella was not concerned with what might have been.

“I don’t think about this because maybe if I had stayed in Barcelona and I didn’t move on, maybe I’d never have the opportunity to play Champions League, or play for Chelsea and win the trophies that I won,” Cucurella said. “I think everything happens for a reason, so I’m very happy with my career, and I’m very happy to play for Chelsea.”

It might have been a rocky start at times — but now, Chelsea fans are equally happy to have him.