The interesting “88%” stat that backs up claims that tepid Chelsea deserved to win | OneFootball

Chelsea have just finished their first game of the season, a 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge.

It was a disappointing result, all told. Enzo Maresca’s team could have lost it had Eberi Eze’s free kick not been ruled out for a minor infringement in the wall.

But what really wasn’t good enough was the play in possession. In a similar manner to some of our performances during a long slump last year, it was slow and sluggish and lacking in creativity. Players like Enzo Fernandez didn’t do their part in putting the Blues on the front foot.

Chelsea’s xG remains healthy despite lack of real chances

Enzo Fernandez on the ball. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

On the BBC website, Tom McCoy noted that the Blues had racked up some decent expected goals by full time, despite not being at their best creatively:

“While Chelsea struggled to break down Crystal Palace, they still finished with an expected goals total of 1.81, their highest figure in a league game in which they didn’t score this calendar year,” he wrote.

“The last time their xG was so high but they failed to net was in December’s 2-0 defeat at Ipswich. Looking at Premier League data since 2022-23, 88% of teams with an xG of between 1.7 and 1.9 scored at least once.”

xG doesn’t tell full story of Blues performance

It’s an interesting stat – despite not really telling the whole story of the game, which one could easily say Palace deserved to win.

That chance for Andrey Santos towards the end probably gave a big boost to the Chelsea xG in the game, but the problem was more the general standards of attacking play of the team.

Perhaps it’s fatigue, or just new players learning to play together, but we will need to see far more coordination in attacking moves as the weeks go by.