In a parallel universe or some kind of alternate timeline, Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino might be hard-pressed for leadership in his squad right now. Fortunately for him, there's an abundance of the stuff.

It's quite hard to imagine how a squad of players whose average age is just 23.1 could have the experience to have become 'leaders' at such an early time in their lives but despite what many might say, Todd Boehly and his Blues haven't just gone around and splashed out the cash all willy-nilly.

It's a quality that is often difficult to determine. What makes someone a good leader? Because it's not exactly something you can put into a metric, it's an intangible - something that the club lost a lot of over the summer through the departure of a whole heap of senior players.

Some that had been with the club for a number of years including Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, and N'Golo Kante while others that had only been there a short while like Kalidou Koulibaly all saw their experience and vast knowledge of the sport go elsewhere.

That was something that was no more obvious than when Cesar Azpilicueta, the stalwart of Stamford Bridge, exit the club after a ten-year stint. Despite that, Thiago Silva remained at the club and is now one of just two players over the age of 25 in Pochettino's dressing room.

Even with an incredible disparity between the 39-year-old and essentially the rest of the squad, there are young leaders emerging. Conor Gallagher, Ben Chilwell and Reece James are three that have already proven their worth to the Argentinian, with the three having captained the side at some point this season.

They've all been through the best and worst of recent Chelsea history - all a vital part of Thomas Tuchel's Champions League-winning squad two years ago and all involved in the club's worst top flight season in living memory. It's the fact that they've been forged through the fire and the flames of winning and losing that makes them battle-hardened at such a young age.

And the same can now be said for Enzo Fernandez. The 22-year-old is another that had to endure the second-half - and undoubtedly the worst period - of the last campaign under Graham Potter and Frank Lampard. What a welcome to English football.

All that coming off the back of the greatest footballing achievement a player could make in winning the World Cup might've turned the star away from his duties as a new Chelsea player. But since then, he's shown just how well he can handle responsibility.

Case in point was in the dramatic 2-2 draw against Arsenal last night in which Fernandez was the determining factor as to whether it was Raheem Sterling or Cole Palmer taking the early penalty for the Blues. The pair were squabbling with the ball and the Argentinian came in and demanded Sterling hand the ball over to Palmer who stepped up and gave Chelsea the lead.

Whether it'd been the right or wrong decision, it's at critical points like that in a match where a true leader will step up and make the decision either for themselves or in this case their teammates. It'll be something Chelsea need a lot of going forward as a young team. They're still gelling together in a brand new system full of players they've never played with before - and leaders in the dressing room will no doubt be invaluable to a manager like Pochettino.

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