Chelsea simply can’t appear to catch a break. After a horrendous begin to the season, the Blues appeared to have recovered after successful two and drawing within the first three weeks of October. Nevertheless, then got here a house defeat towards Brentford, which as soon as once more left the crew with extra questions than solutions. To make issues worse, their subsequent sport was towards their metropolis rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, who had been on the prime of the desk and had been undefeated within the league.
Chelsea, although in essentially the most Chelsea means potential, decimated the desk toppers 4-1 away on the street. Whereas they had been helped by the 2 crimson playing cards given to Christian Romero and Future Udogie, these had been the outcomes of some sensible attacking play by the Blues.
Nevertheless, such has been the inconsistency of Mauricio Pochetinno’s facet that even such a morale-boosting victory doesn’t assure that his crew would possibly go on a future of victories.
Nevertheless, what do the stats say? Have Chelsea been that unhealthy, or has a excessive involvement of luck or gamers not gelling collectively as shortly as was anticipated of them? We clarify.
Chelsea’s attacking metrics
A have a look at their stats within the attacking third proves one factor: Chelsea needs to be at the least within the prime six, if not increased. Information from Soccerment exhibits that the gamers have been sensible at getting the ball close to the objective. The membership are one of the best within the league in the case of Gegenpressing Depth, which exhibits that they play an attacking type of soccer.
Chelsea even have a 63.59 per cent score in Subject Tilt, which measures the quantity of possession a crew has within the opposition’s half. They again these possession benefits by being the second-best crew in taking part in one-twos and the fourth-best when it comes to profitable dribbles.
On prime of that, in addition they have the third-best passing accuracy. Nevertheless, it’s what Chelsea do after they get right into a scoring likelihood that has been the principle purpose for his or her downfall. Whereas Nicolas Jackson dropped a masterclass by scoring a hattrick towards Tottenham, we should keep in mind it got here towards a nine-man crew who had been taking part in a excessive line seeking a objective.
Jackson has an anticipated objective (xG) score of 6.72 however has solely scored 5, three of which got here towards Tottenham. And never solely Jackson however any participant throughout the frontline have failed to seek out the crowning glory. Earlier than the Tottenham sport, the membership’s prime scorer was Raheem Sterling, with solely three objectives.
The xG distinction is much more stark when taking your entire crew into consideration. Whereas Chelsea have scored 17 objectives, on the xG metric, they had been anticipated to attain 22.64 objectives. In keeping with the Premier League received web site, the Blues have missed 22 huge possibilities, the second-most within the league.
Whereas Chelsea have splurged cash to enhance their choices within the midfield (Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo) and defence (Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana), Jackson is sweet however not world-class.
What Pochettino should do to maintain Chelsea in type?
What’s affecting Chelsea is their lack of psychological fortitude, particularly in the case of seizing explicit moments of the sport. And this is among the hardest issues to show, even to world-class gamers. One nice instance was the conflict between Liverpool and Newcastle, the place Jurgen Klopp’s males scored two objectives regardless of being down to 10 males and securing victory, which Klopp known as one of the best in his Liverpool profession.
Different prime golf equipment similar to Manchester Metropolis, Actual Madrid, and Bayern Munich are additionally specialists at these. Chelsea have been taking part in properly, and with extra time and gamers coming back from damage, the standard is barely going to enhance, however will they have the ability to seize these moments is a query solely time will inform.
Nevertheless, with Mauricio Pochettino, they’ve the proper man for this job. This is identical one that developed sensible gamers at Southampton and took Tottenham to a Champions League remaining with minimal sources.
And that is true for all of the positions within the crew. On paper, even Chelsea’s defence ranks among the many finest within the league. They’ve conceded the fifth-least objectives within the league, the third-least pictures within the league, and the fifth-least on-target pictures conceded.
Nevertheless, identical to their assault, they’ve conceded on back-of-school-boy errors, particularly in crunch conditions. And whether or not they have found some kind of psychological energy can be found quickly sufficient. Chelsea’s subsequent 4 video games come towards Manchester Metropolis (away), Newcastle United (away), Brighton (away) and Manchester United (residence).
Whereas this represents one of many hardest challenges for Chelsea, they’ve at the least made a powerful begin. Now, it’s as much as them to maintain the momentum.
