Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech starred against Burnley in first league start

Chelsea had several solid performances against Burnley, but Hakim Ziyech was the star in his first Premier League start at Turf Moor.

Chelsea comprehensively beat Burnley at Turf moor with Hakim Ziyech starring, bagging a goal and an assist. The Chelsea players for the game were rated based on attacking, defensive and passing metrics. To see how each player ranked based on these metrics check out this article.

Based on these ratings Ziyech rated on top for both attacking and passing metrics. In this article, his performance will be broken down based on his underlying numbers for the game.

Ziyech ranked on top primarily due to the fact that he scored Chelsea’s first goal by wrongfooting Pope and slotting it in the bottom corner. Further, he played on a perfectly weighted assist for Chelsea’s final goal through Timo Werner.

Ziyech completed 2.43 successful attacking actions per 90 only third behind the explosive Reece James on the right and the quick and nimble Mason Mount. However, this was aided by the fact that he scored a goal and made an assist.  In terms of actual offensive duels, he only won 33 percent of his offensive duels and also had one of the least offensive duels in the team amongst the attacking players.

Whilst the likes of Kai Havertz, Mount, and James had 9.3, 7.7 and 8.7 offensive duels per 90, Ziyech had only around three offensive duels. Whilst Mount and James did well to win over 50 percent of their duels, Havertz and Ziyech lost more than they won. This speaks to the physicality of the Premier League, especially against one of the most physical sides in Burnley. Havertz and Ziyech are new to the league and thus might take them time to adjust before they are able to figure out ways to win more duels than they lose. Mount and James on the other hand have had a season in the premier league and look to be better placed to understand the pace of the league.

In terms of passing, Ziyech outperformed his teammates in terms of accurate passes to the penalty area making four of his eight attempted passes into the opposing box. Further, he completed five of his six passes to the final third. He also completed 3.65 deep completions per 90 (i.e. a non-cross pass that is targeted to the zone within 20 meters of the opponent’s goal). Given that a lot of his passes had high value in terms of chance creation, it is impressive that he managed to rack up a 78 percent pass accuracy. The data also does not do kindly to some of the balls he put dangerous areas that were not received by his teammates.

For instance, he attempted a few passes into dangerous areas around the far post for Chilwell/Werner to run on to. This is something that is almost a trademark pass for Ziyech, he shifts the ball on to his left and is able to consistently put the ball into dangerous areas by whipping it across to the far post. Chelsea fans can expect to see a few goals coming down the left from Werner/Chilwell as Ziyech delivers it from the right/center into those danger zones.

The data tells us Ziyech was not mighty impressive on the ball in terms of dribbles, offensive duels, and making progressive runs. However, he provided the goods when it mattered and that’s what Lampard and Chelsea will look to get from Ziyech. Similar to Pulisic, Ziyech does not seem to be the player to give you a 7/10 on all the key metrics, rather he seems to be the player to make the difference when it matters.

To understand the rating of other players in the game check out this article. 

All data is from Wyscout.