Dunk: Julio Enciso can go all the way

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Skipper's praise for Chelsea match-winner Enciso.

Bruce Talbot

2023-04-18T06:00:00Z

Lewis Dunk and Julio Enciso.

Lewis Dunk has predicted a bright future for Chelsea match-winner Julio Enciso.

Having scored his first Premier League goal against Bournemouth earlier this month, the 19-year-old midfielder made an even more spectacular contribution at Stamford Bridge on Saturday when his 30-yard hit sealed our 2-1 win.

“He has got great, great talent,” said the skipper. “He is a young kid learning the game, especially so under this manager. He’s come from Paraguay and never experienced the level of work ethic and detail in that it takes to play in the Premier League, especially with this manager. But I think in the last three or four games he has come on and stepped his level up.

“He's been excellent so credit to him for working hard and earning that opportunity. [Against Chelsea] he came on ahead of Danny Welbeck which is some achievement. Everyone in the team trusts him and he's proved the gaffer right.

“As he showed on Saturday he can go right to the top. His level has been consistently good in the last few games. He’s a good kid with an open mind who is willing to learn.”

Dunk says Albion won’t change how they adapt and react to results during the run-in.

“Losing the Spurs game in the way we did doesn’t happen often with all those decisions going against us. But when you come back to work after a Saturday there’s only one way you can go which is to focus on the next game.

“We can’t think we’re cracked it because we won at Stamford Bridge because we haven’t. We’re back in today to be ready for Sunday, taking it game by game and trying to win as many between now and the end of the season to see where we finish.”

The next game is, of course, Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United and Dunk is feeling positive ahead of the Wembley trip.

“They’re probably favourites, most people would say they’re more likely to win,” he added. “But we’ll go into the game confident of our abilities, as a team and individuals, and if we perform like we did [at Chelsea] we feel we’ve got a good chance.”