Chelsea: Losing is a team sport, and other group stage lessons learned

Chelsea advanced to the Champions League Round of 16 by finishing level on points with Valencia, taking the second-place spot on head-to-head. Here are some things we – and hopefully you and they – learned each step of the way.

Chelsea are in the same class as Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Real Madrid and Atalanta. That sounds about right, as they are really not on the same level as Champions League group winners Barcelona, Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City. Chelsea dropped five points against Valencia and two against Ajax: only one point would have taken them into that higher category. Let’s look at some key lessons from how it happened.

1. Losing is a team sport: Chelsea 0 – 1 Valencia

Chelsea had 22 shots in the Champions League opener against Valencia. That was their second-highest shot tally of the campaign. Only in the 4-4 barnburner against Ajax did they take more: they had 23 in that game.

A careful analysis of Chelsea’s 22 shots against Valencia reveals an interesting datum: only one of them was Ross Barkley’s missed penalty.

Barkley has barely been a factor in Chelsea’s season over the last few months, but his name resurfaced on ChelsTwit yesterday as the Very Important #Influencers assigned him sole blame for Chelsea losing the first match and therefore finishing second in Group H. Had Barkley scored that penalty, Chelsea would have won the group.

Had Tammy Abraham scored on any of his five shots, Chelsea would have won the group. But Abraham only put one on target. Olivier Giroud and Willian each had only one shot on target – Giroud took only that shot as he entered the game in the 72′, whereas Willian sent three wide off the mark. Had any of those gone in Chelsea would have won the group. Because irony is wonderful, the only player in that game with multiple shots on target was the perennial scapegoat of those very same #influencers: Marcos Alonso, who had three.

Likewise, had Chelsea won their second game against Valencia, they would have won the group. But they couldn’t manage to have a forward leading the team in shots and shots on target in that game. Mateo Kovacic at least did his part, upholding the “shoot more, score more” theory: he led the team in both stats and scored the opener.

Then again, maybe if Twitter-favourite Emerson had closed down Daniel Wass instead of standing off him has he normally does, Wass would not have not scored the accidental wonder goal of the season. Had Emerson defended Wass and Wass not taken that shot-cross, Chelsea would have won the group.

And if Chelsea had anything resembling a functional defence against Ajax they would not have shipped four goals and maybe could have won that game. And by doing so – all together now -Chelsea would have won the group.

Every goal scored, goal allowed, big chance conceded, big chance scuppered, penalty call, penalty non-call, penalty saved, penalty allowed, penalty blocked, penalty missed and five-yard sideways pass (obligatory) contributes to the final outcome of the game and group. It takes 11-14 players to win a game, and 11-14 players to lose a game.

If you want to blame Ross Barkley for something, blame him for his off-pitch antics. Those are all on him. But Chelsea as a whole landed themselves in second place.