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A lot is being made of Chelsea’s ball possession during games this season, with Blues supporters starting to get frustrated.
Simply put, Xabi Alonso’s side have not been in control of their matches. Against Everton and Bournemouth, they showed all-round improvement.
Chelsea won both of those games, defended well after conceding just one goal and saw a reasonable amount of the ball. However, everything went out of the window in their 2-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur over the weekend.
But just how little of the ball are Chelsea seeing under Alonso? The Chelsea Chronicle has taken a look using stats provided by StatMuse.
Chelsea’s first game of the Premier League season saw them beat west London rivals Fulham 3-2. That night, their ball possession was 38.1%.
That is low, but with it being the first game of the campaign, Chelsea supporters just wanted to see a win. They were the away side as well, so the above is not unheard of.
Recording a ball possession figure of just 26% at home to Brighton & Hove Albion would have obviously been much more of a surprise. Again, though, with it being early in the season and Alonso’s side managing to pick up a win, not too much was said.
Against Arsenal, Chelsea had 45.4% possession, which is to be expected at the Emirates. It was never going to be a game that they would dominate.
If anything, the Blues did quite well to record 45.4% and score early through a spectacular Morgan Rogers strike.
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Chelsea finished their 2-2 draw with Hull City with 67.8% ball possession. That is the kind of figure they should be seeing at home, not 26%.
Brentford play in a low block, so seeing 59.8% of the ball at the Gtech Community Stadium does not mean much. It means even less when you remember Chelsea lost this west London derby 3-0.
It was their worst performance up until their 2-0 defeat to Spurs, but more on that later.
Chelsea beat Bournemouth 5-1, so no one will care about their ball possession percentage for this game (49.9%). With that being said, it is interesting that despite the scoreline being so one sided, Chelsea still did not have the majority share of possession.
At the time, it would have gone under the radar. But looking back now, it was a clear indication that Chelsea do have a possession issue.
Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium is their best away performance of the season so far. They kept their first Premier League clean sheet in nine months and were in complete control of the game, recording a ball possession figure of 52.8%.
If the Everton game was Chelsea’s best performance away, their latest clash with Tottenham was their worst at home. They were absolutely dominated, recording 31.5% ball possession.
The London derby was crying out for Romeo Lavia, but Alonso thought otherwise. That match really summarised the lack of control Chelsea have shown in midfield this season.