Pedro Neto says Chelsea’s thriving competition for places means “no one can sleep”, and admitted he still has work to do to reach the level that made him one of the Premier League's most exciting wingers at Wolves.
Neto’s goal in the 5-0 victory over Barrow in the Carabao Cup was his first since singing from Wolves in a £54million move this summer - and first at any level since February amid a series of injury problems.
The Portuguese was Enzo Maresca’s first marquee forward signing, but the arrivals of Jadon Sancho and Joao Felix later in the transfer window added to what was already a plethora of attacking riches.
Noni Madueke’s form at the start of the season has seen Neto forced to wait for opportunities to play on his favoured right-flank, with the 24-year-old dropped for Sancho for last weekend’s win over West Ham after successive starts on the left.
Tuesday night’s game against the League Two leaders saw Neto excel as part of a reserve frontline that cost more than £200m and the winger says the depth of talent means no player can afford to rest.
“When you arrive at a big club, it's a new adaptation,” he said. “Maybe in Wolverhampton, I was going to play maybe 90 per cent of the games.
“Here, I have to work even more or maybe I’ll not play because the coach will rotate the players. It makes you play even better because you know that you have to work.
“With the amount of quality that we have here, no one can sleep. As the coach has said: ‘Everyone will not play every game’.
“We have to work hard and make for ourselves and continue to to do it every weekend, every training session, every game. It's the mentality that I hope can take us to the top.”
Neto’s final three seasons at Wolves were all heavily disrupted by injury, to the extent that he scored just three Premier League goals in that time.
His most recent injury was a hamstring problem that kept him sidelined for almost two months in the second half of the season, before he returned on the final day against Liverpool, just in time to make Portugal’s European Championship squad.
Nonetheless, the 24-year-old admits he is still not yet back to peak form and fitness.
“At the moment, I'm not at my level, but I'm getting there,” he added. “I know that I will arrive at my top form and I will enjoy it.
“I continue to work. I continue to work on my confidence, on my football, on the adaptation, and I hope to be [at full fitness] as soon as as I can.”
