Is there cause for concern about Chelsea being in 12th place again?

Chelsea also ranks 3rd for passes completed into the penalty area and 2nd for passes into the final third, as well as ranking third for Shot-Creating Actions. All these show that the Blues are regularly getting into good positions to take shots. There are just two major issues.

The chance creation numbers reveal something that could become important. Chelsea is taking 16.5 shots per game, but are only creating 11.3 of them. This suggests that a relatively significant portion of the shots they’re taking are from errors made by their opponents. This could become worrying because while it is good to be forcing your opponents into errors, for the volume of the ball the Blues control, the volume of passes they make, and the areas they get themselves into, they should have a higher proportion of shots created by their own making.

Manchester City and Brighton so far this season are creating 87% of the shots they’re taking, Manchester United is creating 86% of their own shots and Arsenal is creating 81%, Chelsea is creating 68% of the shots they’re taking. It should be noted that 80% is the ideal number for a club of Chelsea’s stature, and the clubs creating over 85% of their shots probably would not sustain it, but Chelsea has played generally easier fixtures than the above-mentioned teams, and therefore their proportion should be at least on par with Manchester City and Brighton, if not higher. This is something Pochettino needs to keep an eye on, as the team should be creating more of their own shots.

The second, and perhaps more important issue, is that Chelsea’s shot-taking has, again, been extremely poor this season. Chelsea ranks 5th for shots taken, but they rank 13th for shots on target taken, and 18th for the proportion of shots that are on target. This is particularly damning because the west London side is more regularly getting on the end of much better chances than their opponents. Only Brentford has gotten more big chances per game than Chelsea (3.5), and that number is likely to reduce the more games the Blues play.

Once again, Pochettino’s men are converting 8% of their shots, the exact number from last season. They have also missed 11 of the 14 big chances they have gotten this season, including the only penalty they have been awarded. Nicolas Jackson leads the front line but also the whole league in many things, one of which is big chances missed (6). Jackson has accumulated 3.0 npxG, only behind Erling Haaland’s 3.1, yet Haaland has 5 non-penalty goals (npG), and his Senegalese counterpart has 1.

So is there cause for concern? As always the answer is not so clear cut, but yes and no. No, because it’s just five games into the season, and Pochettino’s Chelsea managerial tenure and this Chelsea is not yet where he wants it to be.

Yes, there may be reason for concern, because the Blues are depending on opposition mistakes more than they should need to and also because the shooting is really poor. Can Jackson start finishing his dinner? Unfortunately, no one can answer that yet. There’s a lot for the fans to be excited about, but there’s just as much to be cautious about.