If you combine expected goals and assists over the course of a season, you get a rough measure of how many shooting chances a player is taking and how many they are creating.
If you divide that into 90 minute segments, you get a measure of how dangerous a player is in each moment of each game they play – how much they are threatening the opposition goal both directly and indirectly.
Looking at Chelsea’s squad from last season – a squad which can definitely be said to have lacked both creativity and goal threat – two players come out on top according to the FBRef combined expected goals and assists per 90 minutes stats in the Premier League – Joao Felix and Kai Havertz.
As it stands, neither will be at the club next season. Joao Felix’s loan has expired and Chelsea won’t be extending it. Meanwhile Kai Havertz is closely linked with a move to Arsenal in the coming weeks for a sum likely to be over £50m.
We can see why both are being allowed to leave – neither really did the business for us. But there has to be some acknowledgement that letting your two most statistically dangerous players go following a season where you didn’t create or score enough is a big risk.
They will of course be replaced by players who can hopefully bring more to the party than they did. But it’s going to be a long road.
