Jamie Gittens pays Estevao the highest compliment after Brazilian shines against Bayer Leverkusen

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Chelsea returned to action for the first time since winning the Club World Cup on Friday night, debuting more new signings at Stamford Bridge in their friendly against Bayer Leverkusen.

Among them was Estevao Willian, 18, who signed for Chelsea last summer but remained on loan at Palmeiras, where he represented the Brazilian side against Chelsea at the Club World Cup in July.

Appearing in a Chelsea shirt for the first time on Friday night, Estevao dazzled in front of the Stamford Bridge crowd and only took 18 minutes to score against Leverkusen.

Chelsea ultimately ran out 2-0 winners against their Bundesliga opponents, and after the game, fellow new signing and debutant Jamie Gittens was full of praise for his young teammate.

‘You’ve seen the Joga Bonito’ – Jamie Gittens on Estevao’s performance against Bayer Leverkusen

Gittens only shared the pitch with Estevao for 13 minutes in the second half as Enzo Maresca rotated his squad. However, the Englishman spoke glowingly about his new teammate after the game and raved about Estevao’s abilities in training.

The 21-year-old declared Estevao as playing the ‘beautiful game’, telling reporters: “It was amazing. You’ve seen the Joga Bonito. He’s a great player with so much skill and attributes so it was great to see him play and score.

“We see it in training every day. He’s been here for a week and he’s already done mad things in training so to see it today was just one part of him doing it every day.”

Gittens and Estevao will compete for minutes on the wing at Chelsea, both exciting talents with very different backgrounds.

Jamie Gittens not fazed by competition at Chelsea as he targets Premier League success

With Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto, Estevao, Tyrique George and Joao Pedro all capable of playing on the wings for Chelsea, Gittens knows he cannot rest having sealed his £48.5m move from Borussia Dortmund.

“It’s going to help me be a better player in the future. Training feels like a game every day,” he said. “You can’t have an off day. Having this competition will really help the team in general to be at a higher standard.”

While fans are understandably excited by Estevao’s early impact, Maresca has cautioned patience with the teenager. “We need to pay a little bit more attention because, first of all, he’s from another part of the world, and also he’s very young,” the manager said.

“So we need to pay attention, not put him under pressure, give him happiness, give him time. He needs to adapt, and hopefully we can give him minutes to make him even happier. But for sure, he’s a talented player.”

Gittens could take advantage of Estevao’s phased introduction to the Premier League given his extensive experience in the Bundesliga with Dortmund. One thing is for sure, Chelsea’s new-look youthful attack should cause plenty of sides problems this season.