When Chelsea stepped onto the field against champions Leicester, there was a feeling of anxiousness. Despite the positive performance as we brushed past Hull, the back-to-back losses against Liverpool and Arsenal highlighted serious pitfalls within our side. Before Saturday’s game I was perturbed about which Chelsea would turn up; the ineffective and unconvincing group of individuals that were obliterated at the Emirates, or a combative, industrious team that we saw glimpses of in the opening games of the season. The reality was something entirely different. A buoyant, mercurial, majestic Chelsea; everything fell into place for Antonio Conte.
What many expected from Conte upon his arrival in England was pragmatism, assessing the opponents strengths and weaknesses and adjusting the team accordingly. Historically his sides have been successful due to their work off the ball as much as their exploits on it.
I for one did not expect dominating possession to be a common theme of a Chelsea side led by the Italian, and it may well not be going forward, but the quality and innovation we showed with it versus Leicester was as good as I have seen from us in the past 18 months.
Creativity and efficiency
In the Premier League you have to make the most of your opportunities. The notion that our league possesses more quality than any other has been widely debunked, but there is little doubt that it is the most unforgiving. If you do not take your chances, there is a good chance that you will live to regret it later in the game. When Mourinho was in charge, he often bemoaned our inability to ‘kill-off’ sides, instead leaving them with avenues back into the game. Against Leicester, our lead was never under any substantial threat.
Our finishing was more finely tuned than we had seen in other games this season; 18 efforts at goal, six on target and three goals. Compare that to the Swansea game, in which we had 28 efforts at goal, seven on target and just the two goals and it suggests we have since found our shooting boots.
During Saturday’s game, we created 13 chances, scoring three goals. That means we recorded our best goal-per-chance-created ratio of the season so far, scoring with every 4.33 chances we created. Though efficient, those figures would suggest that it was not our most creative display of the season so far, we created 16 chances against Hull and 20 away at Swansea – but the quality of the opportunities we created paint a clearer picture.
The three pink squares depict the three goals we scored. The bigger the square, the better the chance and the more likely it will result in a goal. Compare the below graphs, the first our victory over Leicester City followed by our losses against Arsenal and Liverpool – you will see a distinct difference in the quality of the chances we created. Ultimately, that reflected on the scoreline.
xG map for Chelsea – Leicester City. Chelsea with probably their best performance of the season, Leicester clearly their worst. pic.twitter.com/2sXod74ZiB
— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) October 15, 2016
xG map for Chelsea-Liverpool.
Honestly have very little idea what I learned from that match. Fun tho! pic.twitter.com/rU1wLbwsN8
— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) September 16, 2016
xG map for Arsenal – Chelsea. A no-doubter. pic.twitter.com/prLcQ9KP5T
— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) September 24, 2016
Sturdy back three
What the above graphs will also show you is that we limited Leicester’s opportunities far better than we did against Liverpool and Arsenal. There is a definite possibility that the variation is merely a reflection of the quality of opposition, but it is worth noting that since our change to a back three we haven’t been conceding the sort of opportunities that we were in previous games. The game against Hull, the debut of a three-at-the-back Chelsea, is further evidence of our improvements defensively since the change of formation – they were starved.
xG map for Hull – Chelsea. Better from Chelsea, but "it's just Hull." pic.twitter.com/xKj9IKCTbl
— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) October 1, 2016
The absolute cohesion of the Cahill-David-Luiz-Azpilicueta back-three makes for fond viewing after our recent defensive frailties. Gary Cahill, widely considered as a weakness. David Luiz, erratic, often untrustworthy. Azpilicueta, a right-back, turned left-back, now centre-back. How on God’s green Earth has Antonio Conte got that to work? It’s a mystery, but thus far they haven’t put a foot wrong.
Azpilicueta in particular deserves endless adulation, his second ever game as a centre-back and he was imperious. Three interceptions, two successful tackles, six clearances, two blocks and three aerial duels won. He also didn’t shy away from the ball despite being in an unnatural position, in fact only N’Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater had more touches of the ball during the game. He played 74 passes, again only bettered by Kante and Drinkwater, with a 92% success rate and 70% of them were played forward. It will be interesting to see whether he will make that position his own, despite the returns of John Terry and Kurt Zouma from injury.
The real test for our back three comes next weekend against Manchester United. Though Mourinho will likely, as he did at Anfield, ‘park the bus’ and defend with 11 players behind the ball, the threat of Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one you cannot disregard. If we defend anything like they have in the past two games, though, we will have little trouble.
N’Golo Kante
By some distance the best player on the pitch on Saturday. Leicester’s failure to recreate the form that won them the Premier League title can be attributed to the gaping hole his exit left in their midfield.
Every man and his dog could see that our flimsy midfield was costing us dearly last season, Kante has stepped in and turned it into one of our strongest qualities.
It was another tireless performance from the Frenchman and he is far more productive in possession that I had thought. The Kante that we saw against Leicester is of a different breed to the one who played such a key role for them last season. On Saturday it looked as though he had been unshackled, he was contributing in the defensive areas in his usual manner but was far more progressive in his play than he was allowed to be last season.
The stats tell the whole story. Here is a comparison of a few of Kante’s key per 90 averages for Leicester last season and his man of the match display against them at the weekend: 43 passes vs 86 passes, 3.72 tackles vs 3 tackles, 4.64 interceptions vs 5 interceptions.
As you can see in terms of tackles and interceptions, what he is perhaps best known for, he is still performing to the same level as he did for the Foxes last season. That in itself is a surprise, Leicester averaged just 46% possession last season, that ranked them in 18th place. On Saturday, Chelsea had 55% of possession, you would expect Kante’s defensive contributions to be lower – but it wasn’t the case.
He continued shielding the back three emphatically, and also played more passes than any other Chelsea player on the pitch. On Saturday he doubled his 2015/16 passes-per-game average, Antonio Conte appears to be fielding him in a different role and it is paying dividends.
Optimism
This is a time to think positively as a Chelsea fan. Under the stewardship of Antonio Conte we are going to see plenty of changes as he makes this squad his own. Sit back, and enjoy the ride.
In just a few months here, he has already made several positive steps. He dropped Branislav Ivanovic, the first manager to do so since Andre Villas-Boas. He has moulded the squad to fit into a system he is familiar with, 3-4-3, and we have already seen improvements. And perhaps most importantly, he has got Diego Costa back to his destructive best, 7 goals in 8 games, and he is showing no signs of slowing down.
We now look ahead to next weekend, as he go head-to-head with former manager Jose Mourinho. He will no doubt be the more nervous of the two managers after seeing our performance at the weekend.
