Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea is struggling against midtable compared to rivals
By Travis Tyler
Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea is playing for top four, but is dropping points at an astonishing rate against midtable teams compared to rival clubs.
The Premier League can almost always be broken up into consistent “mini-tables”. There is the top six, followed by another six or so that are consistently midtable. After that are the teams fearing relegation.
Any top six club should be beating any relegation battler. To decide the title, they need to beat most of the other top six. But to make top four? They need to do well against the midtable teams.
Chelsea has not done well against midtable teams. Compared to rivals, the Blues have been atrocious against the midtable. And that more than anything hints that top four may be very difficult for Chelsea.
The current midtable teams are Wolverhampton Wanders, Watford, Everton, Bournemouth, Leicester, and West Ham. The top six has all played each team at least once and all have played between seven and eight fixtures against the group.
Liverpool leads the pack with 19 of 21 available points with only Leicester having stalled them. Surprisingly, Manchester United also has 19 points, but out of an available 24. Tottenham has done well to take 18 points out of 24. Manchester City and Arsenal both sit on 16 points out of 21 available.
How does Chelsea compare? Eight points out of 21. Just to reiterate, that is half of Manchester City and Arsenal have earned against the same group. To say that is shocking is an understatement; it is appalling.
Wolverhampton, Leicester, and West Ham stand out the most against the top six with nine, seven, and seven points gained. Watford, Bournemouth, and Everton have been the whipping boys of the top six, but it is notable that Chelsea is the only top six team to have dropped points to the latter two.
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This means that Chelsea is well behind the eight ball now. The Blues still have to play Wolves, Leicester, West Ham, Everton, and Watford. Three of those matches will be at Stamford Bridge which can help but there really is no more room for error.
If Chelsea has designs on top four, they need to be winning in the midtable. The fact that Arsenal and United both have over double the points against midtable is incredibly concerning. Sarri can make up ground against the top six directly, but that will only go so far.
It is possible that the discrepancy in points is coming from Chelsea’s often mentioned motivation. It is easy enough to go against a team fearful of relegation, dominate possession, and win through attrition. And against the top six, the team is motivated because those points feel more valuable.
But midtable is tricky. Perhaps Sarri and the players feel as though they should be winning those matches. The Premier League midtable is full of creative managers and players that can pull off something on any given day. Perhaps this is a case of Sarri not being used to that as Serie A midtable teams rarely offer the same challenge. Perhaps it is down to the players feeling as though they should win, and getting complacent against the smart midtable teams.
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Regardless, the current record alone is terrible. Compared to rivals, it is shocking. If Sarri wants to keep his job and if the Chelsea players want to make top four, they have got to take top four more seriously. All should be hoping that the current gap is not so large that it will cost Chelsea at the end of the season.