Chelsea 2021/22 player ratings (part one): Goalkeepers and defense
Chelsea’s 2021/22 season came to an end one month ago. The west London club participated in six different competitions and the Blues did well in all of them, reaching the final of two and winning another two. Chelsea finished third in the Premier League, reached the final of both domestic cups and won the FIFA Club World Cup. It also won the UEFA Super Cup, albeit it was a one-game competition. The Blues also reached the quarterfinal stage of the UEFA Champions League, losing to the eventual champion, Real Madrid. The team went through turbulent parts of the season, especially considering the sanctions and the takeover process that accompanied the club. How did each player perform individually though?
In this first installment of the three-part series, we will take a look at the back line. For the purpose of this piece, wingbacks will be regarded as midfielders.
Edouard Mendy (Goalkeeper): 8/10
Edouard Mendy is one of the few Chelsea players that remained consistent from the 2020/21 season. Mendy started the season over-performing his post shot expected goals (PSxG), which means that he was saving quite a lot of shots that he wasn’t expected to. Therefore, when Mendy’s performances later stabilized, it looked like he was performing poorly. This consistency applied only to the league season though. He was much worse in the Champions League this season—compared to last—even though the European competition ended with no goalkeeper keeping more clean sheets than the Blues’ No. 1.
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Despite Mendy’s poor save percentage in the Champions League last season, of all the goalkeepers that finished the season with five clean sheets, he boasts the lowest goals conceded per 90 (0.8), even lower than Thibaut Courtois. Mendy also kept a clean sheet in a higher proportion of his games than any other keeper in the competition last season, keeping a clean sheet in 55.5% of his contests. In the Premier League, Mendy faced more shots than in the 2020/21 season, but he maintained his save percentage.
Kepa Arrizabalaga (Goalkeeper): 7.5/10
Kepa Arrizabalaga actually had a good season, but you wouldn’t be able to tell with the how the Spaniard was ignored in the second half of the campaign. One penalty shootout was what saw Arrizabalaga out of even the cup line-ups. But he had been between the sticks for Chelsea three times prior to the Carabao Cup final and the Blues had won all three shootouts. Arrizabalaga deserves credit for the shootout wins against Villarreal in the Super Cup, as well as the penalty shootouts in the Carabao Cup knockouts against Southampton and Aston Villa. Arrizabalaga was also impressive in the four League games he played, averaging 2.8 saves per game at an 85% save rate. His penalty miss and all-round poor showing against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final was exactly that, a bad game.
Marcus Bettinelli (Goalkeeper): 6.5/10
Marcus Bettinelli played just one game for Chelsea last season—he was good. The Blues dominated the game against Chesterfield in the FA Cup third round and Bettinelli faced three shots on target, two of which he saved. It was a game Chelsea should have left with a clean sheet, but it was not to be in the end. Bettinelli’s distribution was also superb in that match, as he completed six out of seven attempted long balls and 22 passes out of 23 attempted in all.