Chelsea simply can not 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 in opposition to Brentford, which as soon as once more left the crew with extra questions than solutions. To make issues worse, their subsequent sport was in opposition to their metropolis rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, who had been on the high of the desk and had been undefeated within the league.
Chelsea, although in probably the most Chelsea method attainable, decimated the desk toppers 4-1 away on the street. Whereas they had been helped by the 2 purple 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 aspect that even such a morale-boosting victory doesn’t assure that his crew may go on a future of victories.
Nevertheless, what do the stats say? Have Chelsea been that dangerous, 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 take a look at their stats within the attacking third proves one factor: Chelsea ought to be at the very least within the high six, if not greater. Knowledge from Soccerment exhibits that the gamers have been sensible at getting the ball close to the purpose. The membership are the very best within the league on the subject of Gegenpressing Depth, which exhibits that they play an attacking fashion of soccer.
Chelsea even have a 63.59 per cent score in Area 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 enjoying one-twos and the fourth-best by way of profitable dribbles.
On high of that, additionally they have the third-best passing accuracy. Nevertheless, it’s what Chelsea do once they get right into a scoring likelihood that has been the principle cause for his or her downfall. Whereas Nicolas Jackson dropped a masterclass by scoring a hattrick in opposition to Tottenham, we should keep in mind it got here in opposition to a nine-man crew who had been enjoying a excessive line in the hunt for a purpose.
Jackson has an anticipated purpose (xG) score of 6.72 however has solely scored 5, three of which got here in opposition to Tottenham. And never solely Jackson however any participant throughout the frontline have failed to search out the of entirety. Earlier than the Tottenham sport, the membership’s high scorer was Raheem Sterling, with solely three objectives.
The xG distinction is much more stark when taking your entire crew under consideration. Whereas Chelsea have scored 17 objectives, on the xG metric, they had been anticipated to attain 22.64 objectives. In response to the Premier League gained web site, the Blues have missed 22 huge probabilities, 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 nice however not world-class.
What Pochettino should do to maintain Chelsea in kind?
What’s affecting Chelsea is their lack of psychological fortitude, particularly on the subject of seizing explicit moments of the sport. And this is without doubt one of 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 the very best in his Liverpool profession.
Different high golf equipment corresponding to Manchester Metropolis, Actual Madrid, and Bayern Munich are additionally consultants at these. Chelsea have been enjoying nicely, and with extra time and gamers getting 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 ultimate 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 photographs within the league, and the fifth-least on-target photographs 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 form of psychological power will likely be found quickly sufficient. Chelsea’s subsequent 4 video games come in opposition to Manchester Metropolis (away), Newcastle United (away), Brighton (away) and Manchester United (house).
Whereas this represents one of many hardest challenges for Chelsea, they’ve at the very least made a powerful begin. Now, it’s as much as them to maintain the momentum.