Is it now appropriate to laugh at those that doubted Thiago Silva when he first joined Chelsea? The Brazilian was a spritely 35 at the time, though soon to become 36, but now he is 38 and arguably playing at the highest level he has in England so far.
As he enters his third season in the Premier League he is now playing more than he has before, completing 700 more minutes in 2021/22 than he did in 2020/21, he's only missed one match so far this season in the league with 90 minutes completed in the rest. At this rate he will play more more minutes than he ever has in a single season - though some rotation will naturally be expected.
Only once before in his club career has he passed 2900 minutes before, the last time that happened was at AC Milan aged 24 - 14 years on and he could do the almost impossible.
More than just being a figure that plays, Silva sets standards higher than other players defensively and on the ball. His passing is crisper, sharper and more incisive. He sees the game unfold before him like he has the ability to slow down and speed up time. He sees more on the pitch than most do from a bird's-eye view.
He has undoubtedly been a big part of the development of Trevoh Chalobah, Reece James and Ben Chilwell whilst Wesley Fofana will be taking in every pearl of wisdom available to him. In a back three with Silva, Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger both elevated their game to heights previously untouched.
This wasn't the expectation when he first joined though, and former Blues assistant manager Jody Morris, who was part of the staff when Silva joined from Paris Saint-Germain in 2020, admits he was surprised by just how good the Brazilian has been.
"Absolutely [he was better than I realised], and that’s taking nothing away from the respect and the admiration I had for him," Morris told Sky Sports. "I always thought he was a top, top centre-half. But when you have a player in Italy and France you don’t really get to see them close-up and see them day in, day out.
"The fact that I had the opportunity to work with him, I could see the leader he is and to be performing at the levels he’s played at this season is outstanding. He’s not only someone who produces top-quality performances himself, but he makes players around him better. He’s a leader and the calmness he brings to the team is outstanding.
"Even when Chelsea were going through bad spells, he was still playing at a decent level."
Silva, who joined on an initial one-year contract at SW6, has since extended his stay twice and has hopes of remaining at the club beyond 2023 as well with the ambition of playing into his 40s. Considering the way he controls his body, this isn't unreasonable.
He has already had a massive impact on Graham Potter too, and the manager has been full of praise for Silva the player and the person. "He's 38-years-young, and when he's playing like that, he's a really impressive person," Potter said on Silva earlier in the month. "I've really enjoyed working with him.
"He's a fantastic guy. You can tell he's got a proper experience behind him. He has such humility to do just the job, so it's nice to see." Potter trusted Silva to deal with the threat of Olivier Giroud across back-to-back matches against his former side AC Milan and the veteran rewarded the faith with two clean sheets.
He has already spoken about how good his first choice centre-back is: "He's an incredible person, incredible player," Potter said. "The level he can play at, the performance level he can reach, and the respect he has through the game is just incredible. All I can do is try and help him enjoy his football here, be part of a winning team and all of the rest is something for him and the club to think about."
As for Morris, he has put some of the praise towards the manager as well as Silva, saying: "First and foremost I was really pleased to see Chelsea appoint an English manager. I think you can rule out his first game in charge because it was too soon. Since then, you can’t ask for more. Clean sheets were hard to come by before Potter came in but they’re looking more solid now.
"One of the positives is that they’ve played a lot of different players and still performed well. That bodes well for Chelsea’s games after the World Cup and the hectic schedule."
Silva's next task will be travelling to Aston Villa before a run of eight matches in just over three weeks brings Chelsea to the World Cup break, unsurprisingly a tournament that Silva will be playing in as well. There's no way to keep him down. Who's laughing now.
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