I wrote an article after the 2019/20 Premier League season highlighting the defensive work put in by the Chelsea players, despite being very much a possession-based team. The article showed that Blues defenders made considerably more defensive actions per game than Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City in most defensive metrics; yet, they conceded 17 more goals than the next team on that list. The culprit seemed to be Kepa Arrizabalaga, who averaged a 54 percent save rate per game last season, leading to Chelsea conceding the ninth most goals in the league (54), despite conceding the second fewest shots (323).
Chelsea has gone from conceding the ninth most goals in the league last season to being the second best defense in the league this season—conceding only 25 goals after 29 games. Many defended Arrizabalaga, saying that the reason the Blues conceded so much was because of the awful defense in front of him. The numbers told a different story. I tweeted after the Champions League home tie against Sevilla on Matchday 1 that Chelsea was keeping more clean sheets, despite doing less defensively. This was four months ago, and though that was referring to the Champions League, that is still true for the Premier League. This is thanks in large part to Edouard Mendy.
Mendy started his Chelsea career in superb fashion, keeping nine clean sheets in his first 12 games. This feat would have been appreciated more if people didn’t try to credit those clean sheets to Thiago Silva and a host of other factors. Some mentioned Silva’s leadership and others credited the Blues’ overall newfound defensive solidity, claiming Mendy’s clean sheets were mainly due to him not facing a lot of shots. One problem though is the fact that Chelsea did not face a lot of shots last season either.
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The west Londoners look more solid defensively this season, but that’s about it—look. The Blues are not defending any more than they were last season, in fact, they are defending less. Mendy is the major reason Chelsea has a stellar defensive record this season and he deserves Player of the Year shouts for that exact reason.
What makes Mendy worthy of Chelsea’s Player of the Season?
After 29 games in the league this season, the Blues have allowed 8.9 shots per game, compared to 8.5 last season. They rank fourth for shots allowed this season, compared to second last season. They made 16.8 tackles per game last season, compared to 16 this season. In both campaigns, Chelsea has averaged the third highest possession proportion. It averaged a 31.8 percent successful pressure percentage, compared to 30.9 percent last season.
The Blues have made 10.7 interceptions per game this year, compared to 12.1 last year. Interestingly, Chelsea ranked second in the league for interceptions per game last season, despite having the third highest average possession. Naturally, Thomas Tuchel’s side should be further down the chart for interceptions, or at least not as high as second. This highlights the Blues’ defensive awareness last season, thanks to Kurt Zouma, who led the team in interceptions per game amongst players who played at least 19 games. Chelsea ranks ninth for interceptions per game this season overall.
The Blues rank third lowest for blocked shots per game this season (2.1), also ranking third lowest last season (2.4), which is expected seeing as they concede so few shots. The only area Chelsea is doing more defensively, is clearances per game, thanks to Zouma again. The team has made 17.1 clearances per game this season (13th), compared to 15.4 last season (19th). While defending is a lot more than just defensive actions, it is clear that the Blues are recording less defensive actions per game this campaign compared to last. The narrative, therefore, that the Chelsea players are just putting in more defensive work this season is largely false.
The Blues allowed 3.03 shots on target per 90 last season, compared to 2.69 this season. Ranking second best last season and third best this season. It is important to note that these numbers are very good. The difference is that Arrizabalaga averaged a 55 percent save percentage last season—making 1.7 saves per 90 and facing three shots on target per match—compared to Mendy’s 75 percent save rate at 1.8 saves this season, facing 2.38 shots on target per 90.
On the surface, it looks like Mendy and Arrizabalaga did similar work in terms of goalkeeping, but Mendy’s higher save rate shows that he has delivered on the few occasions he has been called upon. The same couldn’t be said for Arrizabalaga. This is revealed in the post-shot expected goals – goals allowed (PSxG+/-) numbers. Arrizabalaga has allowed 9.5 more goals than he was expected to; compared to Mendy, who has saved prevented 0.6 more goals than he was expected to. Mendy has conceded a league low 0.7 goals per game this season, compared to Arrizabalaga’s seventh highest 1.4 last season. In fact, Mendy is doing better than last season’s best goals per game record, which was 0.8.
The job of a defense is to limit the number of shots the goalkeeper has to face, not eliminate it, because that is simply impossible. Defenses can only limit the amount of chances opponents have, and Chelsea’s defense did that better than 18 teams last season. Currently, the back line is performing that task better than 17 other teams this season—the rest is left to the goalkeeper.
Mendy has kept 14 clean sheets this season in 24 games. Arrizabalaga kept eight clean sheets in 33 matches last campaign. It would be unfair not to point out that Mendy has played behind a back five for nine of his 24 games this season, but it would also be appropriate to highlight that Mendy had kept seven clean sheets in 15 games behind a back four, as well.
Chelsea’s strongest point this season has been its defense, not the attack. The Blues have kept 15 clean sheets in 29 games, ranking second best this season. They have scored 44 goals in 29 games, ranking eighth best. At the heart of Chelsea’s glowing defense is Mendy. Mendy has played behind more than six different centerback combinations, and has been consistent throughout.
Yes, there was the patch of games spanning December to January that saw Chelsea pick up two wins in 10. While Mendy didn’t keep as many clean sheets, he still made some significant saves to keep the score-lines the same, saving Chelsea from even more embarrassment. The Blues’ offense has been grossly underperforming this season, with Mason Mount ranking first in big chances created (7). Chelsea’s highest league goal scorer this season is Jorginho (6), tied with Tammy Abraham, and Abraham doesn’t seem to be first choice center forward at the moment. Chelsea’s highest league assister is Timo Werner (5). For a team pushing for top four, that is really poor in those highlighted categories.
At first glance, Mount looks a clear choice for Chelsea’s Player of the Season award, but a closer look will reveal that the defense has performed way better than the attack. It would be unfair to hand this award to an attacker or midfielder. A defender should be winning it, because they’ve been generally more consistent and outstanding this season, and the most consistent member of the back line is Mendy.
Note: Mendy and Arrizabalaga’s shots faced per 90 are different from that of the overall team because they have not started every game in goal during either season under spotlight. Stats are from WhoScored, fbref and SofaScore.