Bielsa-inspired Chelsea rank in top 3 in trio of attacking stats; Blues will blow teams away next year | OneFootball

The Premier League’s look at Chelsea’s data from this season shows that we’re actually one of the big attacking forces in the league if you go by numbers alone.

Their piece says that their football is “inspired by the straight lines of Marcelo Bielsa,” and the data is there for all to see:

“Chelsea top the charts for through-balls played, with 107. They rank second for attempted take-ons (782) and third for successful take-ons (358),” Alex Keble writes.

It goes even further than that. We’re also fourth in progressive carries and have been caught offside the fourth-most times (we’re amazed that’s not first, in fact.)

So the team are passing the ball forward fast, dribbling it directly and taking players on, and pushing the opposition defensive line. When it all comes together, it should be scintillating – as we’ve seen against Everton and West Ham recently.

Chelsea get a teamtalk in the Carabao Cup.

The data that counters the criticism

The criticism that has been pointed at Chelsea for large parts of this season has been that the side hasn’t come together, and we’ve seen little progress since preseason where we did look fluid and dangerous at times.

But the data above shows that we really have been threatening in attack, even if our finishing and our defending has let us down at times.

Now when you take into account the three major circumstantial factors (the fact that this an exceptionally young team, that the players are largely very new to the club, plus the injuries that have tried Pochettino’s hands) you have a really strong case for him to make that things are going much better than it seems.

If we’re this dominant in these categories despite the conditions, just think how we could look next year if Pochettino is allowed to stay. We could be blowing teams away come August.