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Mikel Obi played his 27th European game for
Chelsea as they whipped Slovakian side, MSK Zilina 4-1 to record a flying start
to their UEFA Champions League campaign this season. It meant that apart from
goalkeeper Petr Cech, the Nigerian is the only Blues player to have featured in
every single minute of all the club’s five competitive matches in the 2010/2011
season.

It had been feared that the Super Eagles
midfielder would return to a bit-part role at Stamford Bridge this term with
the return of Michael Essien from a long injury lay-off. The injury kept the
Ghanaian out of action since for most of the 2009/2010 season. But Mikel has
impressively retained his anchor role this season with the Chelsea manager,
Carlo Ancelotti preferring to move Essien to the right side of the midfield.

Since his acrimonious transfer to the West
London outfit in the summer of 2006, Mikel has struggled to convince critics
that he had made the right decision after he was initially paraded by
Manchester United as a new signing barely a year earlier. He had agreed a move
from Norwegian side, Lyn Oslo but later claimed he was forced into the decision
and insisted his choice was to join Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.

Difficult
start

After the London club eventually secured his
signature in a £16 million transfer, Mourinho moulded him into the midfield
anchor role and Mikel soon took over the mantle from legendary Frenchman Claude
Makelele. Having previously starred as a creative midfielder- most famously at
the 2005 U-20 World Youth Championship where he led Nigeria to a runners up
finish, it was no surprise he struggled to adapt to the new position, leading
to a couple of dismissals and suspensions for rash tackles. Yet the Portuguese
tactician kept faith in the youngster.

Successive Chelsea managers including Avram
Grant, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Guus Hiddink all made him play crucial parts
during their reigns at the club, so also is the current boss, Ancelotti.

Change

Ancelotti quickly noted when he joined Chelsea
at the start of last season that he would like Mikel to play as a deep-lying
playmaker in the mould of Andrea Pirlo, who played under him at AC Milan.
Despite playing a key role in the team’s Premier League and FA Cup success,
Mikel rarely attracted plaudits from the Blues’ faithful.

That has however changed this season.

Ancelotti now has three options for the
defensive midfield position following the capture this summer of Brazilian
star, Ramires but Obi has continued to blossom. Part of the criticism the
former Plateau United trainee has endured was a supposedly laid-back passing
style but the Chelsea manager has revealed Mikel is working hard on the
training ground to improve his quality, particularly as he now swaps his role
with Essien.

“Last season, he had an average of 18 per cent
forward passes and in the three games this season he has had 38 per cent. He’s
trying to put more balls directly to strikers,” Ancelotti told the Telegraph
recently.

Mikel’s improved performance this season has
seen him claim an assist against Wigan, as well as rattle the post against West
Ham last weekend Chelsea assistant manager, Ray Wilkins also revealed to the
club’s official website that both Essien and Mikel have been working on their
attacking potentials.

“I’ve been telling him for a while that he is
allowed to score, he and John Obi I keep telling. When John hit the bar I told
him that’s only to keep the net up, so he had a little flea in his ear as
well.”

Mikel is expected to make his 115th Chelsea appearance
against Blackpool this afternoon at Stamford Bridge, with only 25 of those
coming as a substitute.