3 of Chelsea’s best performing players by stats may never play for club again | OneFootball

It’s a funny fact that if you look at Chelsea’s top 4 players for “non penalty expected goals and expected assists per 90 minutes” in the Premier League this season (FBRef), you will quickly notice that 3 of the 4 may never play for the club again.

This is the stat that would usually point to your best attacking players. It tells you who is creating the best chances and scoring the most relative to the chances created for them, all relative to the number of minutes played.

Chelsea’s top performers still not wanted

Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku complain about a decision.

Of course, in the end it’s just a quirk of statistics. But there we are.

Joao Felix started 3 games (369 minutes) and generated 0.78 non penalty goals and assists per 90 in those minutes.

Mykhailo Mudryk was close behind on 0.71 non penalty goals and assists from 1 start (151 minutes)

Third is star man Cole Palmer – it shows how good he is that he’s up there competing with players without a real sample size. He managed 0.68 non penalty goals and assists in his 36 starts (3191 minutes).

Level with him is Christopher Nkunku, who started 9 games and played 921 minutes.

Chelsea would love to shed unwanted trio despite strong stats

It may prove tricky to pull it off, but in an ideal world Chelsea are looking to sell Felix and Nkunku this summer. There does seem to be decent interest in both, although getting the fees we want is another question.

Mudryk’s situation is different – he failed a drugs test, and hasn’t played since 2024. The results of the B sample haven’t been confirmed, but chances are it comes out with the same result as the A sample, and he then faces a long ban, with Chelsea able to cancel his contract and walk away at that point.