It was Sunday, May 21, 2017. Stamford Bridge was confetti-packed with bottles of champagne cork popping in galore. It was a dreamlike moment happening in real time and for Victor Moses, it looked even more surreal. 

Just a year before that fateful day, he had just finished an underwhelming season at West Ham with his club career in limbo. But a year later and after an unexpected turn of events, Moses was in the celebratory mood at Stamford Bridge with a Premier League medal around his neck. 

Chelsea had just rounded up their season with a 5-1 thumping of Sunderland and finally got their hands on the Premier League trophy which they had been guaranteed two weeks earlier. For the Nigerian, a season that started with uncertainties, ended with one of the greatest moments of his career. 

Moses joined Chelsea in the summer of 2012 after he impressed at Wigan and spent that season helping them to a Europa League title. But with the return of Jose Mourinho, the Nigerian was discarded.

To rationalise Mourinho’s decision, Moses never hit the dizzy heights of the potentials he showed as a youngster at Wigan and it points to how highly he was still rated at that time that it was Liverpool who took him on loan. 

That didn’t work out, neither was his stint the following season at Stoke City and then later West Ham. 

Moses’ loan stints at these three clubs were riddled with inconsistency and the struggles with fitness. Also, the illusion of his potential seemed to have become obvious that Chelsea didn’t look like they cared anymore. 

Hence, he was contemplating his next move when Antonio Conte told him to stay, but as the season kicked off, it was clear to him and everyone that he was just a fringe player. 

Then there was that first half collapse at the Emirate Stadium to Arsenal in September 2016. Losing 0-3 at halftime, Conte reverted to his favourite 3-4-3 formation, throwing Moses in as a wing-back, a move that marked the player's revival at Chelsea and then at length turned the club's season around.

He started the next 22 Premier League games for Chelsea-from September 2016 to April 2017- and played a crucial role in their 13 consecutive winning streak as their went on to win the title. In total, he made 28 league starts and 33 league appearances that season. 

From the cold, Moses had made an unexpected comeback at Chelsea to become one of their most important players.

Clearly not blessed with Pedro’s goal-scoring instincts, neither the flair and nimble feet of Eden Hazard, his qualities, Conte exploited to devastating effect. An impressive stamina, strength and fitness which made him the perfect fit for the right wing-back position. Harrying that right wing with vim and vigour that gave Chelsea a new level of penetration and width that made them so deadly.

“Moses has important qualities: technique, physical strength, the ability to cover 70 metres of the pitch. I find it incredible that someone like him has been underestimated,” Conte told Gazzetta dello Sport in November 2016.

Moses' Chelsea career got another boost with a new contract as a reward for his new-found role and form. 

He finished that season with a Premier League title with Chelsea who also had a good run in the FA Cup where they lost in the final to Arsenal.

Moses continued to be an important player at Chelsea under Conte the following season although struggles with injuries and fitness meant he never quite maintained the heights of the previous season. He also didn’t have the novelty that came with his unfamiliar role anymore. Yet, when on form, Moses made Chelsea more efficient although they were also struggling to hit the heights of their Premier League-winning season. 

It was in the closing stages of the 2017/2018 season that Moses managed to garner some momentum which allowed him to be important player for Chelsea again as they went on to win a FA Cup title. That was his last impactful act for Chelsea as he lost his place in the team following the summer arrival of Maurizio Sarri, the new manager. 

Under Sarri’s favoured 4-3-3 formation, there was no place for Moses. Having seen his flair stifled with the demand of the wing-back role, he failed to rediscover the skillset required to be a forward for a club of Chelsea's status. Not sturdy enough, he was also not considered good enough for the right-back role.

“Moses is more suitable for playing like a wing back than a winger or a full back," Sarri once explained. 

He managed just one appearance all season before his 18-month loan move to Fenerbahce. A move which only signals the end of his Chelsea career.

Moses played key roles in the two titles Chelsea won during his second stint at the club, but his importance in those triumphs might not make it to the highlight reels and that is within reason considering the clear-cut impacts of Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and N'golo Kante.

Where he stands out is in the remarkable way he turned his Chelsea career around after three unsuccessful loan moves. No one has ever managed that in modern Chelsea who are notoriously ruthless with players in their overloaded loan system.

From the forward who couldn't attain the heights that were expected of him, discarded out on loan three times to the wing-back who resolutely delivered on his function. It wasn't glossy in anyway and it was very brief, but Moses did made an impact at Chelsea.