Yesterday we looked at the games from this season in which Chelsea had less than 50% possession (they were almost all against Man City and Liverpool) – but what about the Blues’ most dominant games?
Two of the top 3 – with 79 and 77% possession respectively, came against Everton in the Premier League.
And how many points did Chelsea come away with from those games? A measly 1.
The first game saw us utterly dominate Everton at Stamford Bridge, but score only once. We then conceded in the 74th minute.
The second game was somehow even worse, as we lost 1-0 to the Toffees despite having all the ball and the better of the chances.
In the end it didn’t cost us – and those points were vital in keeping Frank Lampard’s team up – but if things hadn’t gone our way in other games that could well have been the game that somehow saw us lose our grip on the Champions League spots.
It’s no use having 79% of the play when the other side have 100% of the goals. People seem to forget that defending is an art every bit as important as scoring, combining both gives a positive result, failing in one can lead to disappointment.
Against Everton the Chelsea forwards were seen to be easily wound up by their defensive counterparts and, lost their heads a little, and their composure.