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Chelsea’s defence has been dodgy all season – some good games, some bad games, but a lot of clean sheets thrown away.
For a long period that didn’t hurt them too much, as the attackers were getting the job done up top. But recent games have seen the attack falter, exposing the flaws in the defence.
A run of 8 wins in a row in all competitions from late November to late December saw Enzo Maresca’s team rack up 2 or more expected goals in every game. The only game in which they didn’t manage 2 was one where they already had 2 goals before half time, and were able to ease off anyway.
By contrast, the recent run of 4 without a win has seen the opposite. We scraped to 2 xG (just) against Ipswich, but in the other games had just 1.2, 1.1 and 1.2. Those sorts of numbers won’t get you very far unless you have a completely ruthless striker and a water-tight defence – neither of which we have.
The game against Morecambe this weekend is a nice chance to rest and rotate, and we should generate a lot of chances and score a lot of goals regardless. But the run of games after that will be very telling. Unless we get back to creating far more in front of goal, these struggles will continue.
How Chelsea can get back on top of xG woes
What needs to change? Well, Nicolas Jackson needs to get back to his best in front of goal. Pedro Neto needs to start chipping in from the right wing too. Enzo Fernandez had a spurt of goal contributions in our good run, and we’ve got to keep getting him in position for more.
Cole Palmer can’t be criticised as he’s kept doing his bit – but others need to help him out. We wonder what Maresca will be cooking in a full week of training this week.Read Full Details
