With four games left to play in the Premier League you would hope for an exciting title race, sadly for the neutral this isn’t the case. Chelsea currently sit top of the league with 13 points separating them from Manchester City who occupy 2nd.
However, although Chelsea have put in consistently good performances over the course of the season and have not really been challenged for 1st place since the turn of the year, they have come under some scrutiny and are being labelled as ‘boring’. It’s quite difficult to understand how a team can be called boring when the squad consists of players like Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas & Diego Costa.
Admittedly Chelsea’s first half of the season was a lot more pleasing on the eye; going unbeaten in their first 22 matches, 14 of these being in the league. They were also smashing in goals for fun, scoring 15 in their first 4 league matches. The second half of the season however has been a bit different, with a much more tactical and defensive approach being used by Jose Mourinho. Prior to the Leicester game the blues had not won a league game by more than one goal since their 5-0 win against Swansea in January.
However let’s examine the stats and see if they provide any truth to the claims. According to Squawka, Chelsea are:
– 2nd in the league for most chances created
– 2nd in the league for most goals scored
– 4th in the league for most total shots, joint 1st for accuracy
– 3rd in the league for highest pass completion
A number of pundits have come out and defended Chelsea by stating that the boring comments about Chelsea are ridiculous and unnecessary. Chelsea are in the top four for all of the key attacking and creative categories which supports claims by pundits that this criticism is completely unjustified.
It could be argued that Chelsea are deemed boring due to the defensive qualities they have as a team and how one-sided they make matches. However the stats this season show this is not the case with Chelsea being in the bottom half of the table for the most amount of interceptions, blocks and clearances.
In reality, a lot of teams would kill to be in Chelsea’s current position and a lot of comments made about them are most likely out of envy. There is no way an argument can be made that a majority of the teams in the Premier League play better football than Chelsea, if Chelsea play boring football then most teams in the league do as well. Chelsea are a team that are tactically very hard to break down and score goals against and in some respects this has to be appreciated. Defending is just as much an art as attacking and a team has to play to their strengths. You wouldn’t see Chelsea playing an ugly style of football where they kick the ball route one to their strikers; they play a fast pace style and try to utilise their attacking forces like Eden Hazard and Diego Costa.
The main problem Chelsea has from an outsider’s perspective is that Jose Mourinho tends to always play pretty safe. We very rarely see young players getting their chance in the league and even when they make the bench it is rare that they will get on the field. Mourinho knows what works for him and he executes it perfectly. It could be argued Chelsea need to be a bit more adventurous but why do that when you know you have a team and formation capable of winning the league?
If you would like to hear more from Harry, you can find him on Twitter @hazzaffc.
