Mason Mount has been one of Chelsea’s most prolific players this season, scoring seven goals and racking up four assists in the Premier League. Mount has exceeded his non-penalty xG (4.4) by 1.6 goals as he scored six non-penalty goals this season. This is primarily because of his prolific shooting performance—both in terms of shot quantity and quality.
In terms of goal contribution, we can understand Mount’s performance based on two metrics. The first of which is non-penalty expected goals per 90, which helps understand Mount’s chance getting ability. This is a function of his ability to find space by making late runs into the box, as well as the team’s ability to cross or pass the ball into high-value areas that are more likely to lead to a goal. The other is expected assists per 90, which helps understand his chance creation ability thus far this season. This article provides a visualization of these two metrics to understand where Mount stands amongst his teammates and the best players in the league.
Mason Mount has been one of Chelsea’s best players this season in the league
The 22-year-old ranks highest on both metrics within the squad with 0.4 non-penalty xG 90 and 0.3 xA/90. Mount stands head and shoulders over all his fellow teammates in both metrics, which is probably why he is the first name on the team sheet when he is fit and ready for selection. Further, with Lukaku having a rough start to the season and Chilwell (who is another goal threat as a wingback) out due to injury, Mount’s role in contributing goals to the team is more important than ever. According to analytics twelve, Mount ranks seventh of all players in the Premier League this season with his expected threat in attack measured by key actions that create attacking opportunities for the team. These include chances created, assists, key passes, etc.
Further, Mount ranks third this season for open play sequence involvements that ended in a goal. He sits behind only Salah—who is arguably the best player in the world on form—and Jota, who is having his best statistical season so far. Open play sequence involvement is defined by the analyst as “the number of unique open play sequences that a player was involved in.” Mount has been involved in 12 open play sequences that ended in a goal, showing how influential his actions are in Chelsea’s goals this season.
Amongst midfielders, Mount has the highest xA (expected assists) per 90 at 0.28, ahead of Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Paul Pogba at 0.22/90. He is also the best Blues midfield player in terms of chances created at 1.11 per 90 for players who have played above 900 minutes this season. Although Hakim Ziyech is higher on this metric at 1.8, he has played less than 550 minutes this season. Reece James is the only other player who has played over 900 minutes to clock a higher chance created per 90 at 1.89. Callum Hudson-Odoi has created 2.85 chances per 90—the second-best in the division only behind Kevin De Bruyne. However, he has only played 600 minutes so far this year. Mount has the best statistics amongst players that are not rotated too much. He is a generational talent that Chelsea will surely look to build around in the coming years, along with Kai Havertz.
What have you made of Mount’s performances for the Blues this season? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!