Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino was pleased with Lesley Ugochukwu's full debut in Sunday's 0-0 draw at Bournemouth.
The midfielder, a summer signing from Rennes, was pitched in at Dean Court by Pochettino.
The manager said, "That is one of the positive things, a first start for him.
"He is really young and to compete at this level [the Premier League] is always difficult. But I think his performance was good."
Chelsea were without 12 players on the day due to injury and illness.
"There were only three players [who featured against Bournemouth] that were working with us, the rest were away on international duty," Pochettino said.
"That makes it difficult, but now we have three or four weeks to work together. That is going to be important for us and also to recover the injured players."