Rotten Chelsea on track for jaw-dropping number that indicates significant drop-off in the last two years.
Sky Sports has just reported on Chelsea’s poor defensive performance this season, stating that the Blues have already conceded 57 goals. That means it’s already their best Premier League season in terms of goals conceded, and there are still six games left. They don’t provide any explanation, only stating that we haven’t been able to name a settled defence all year.
Our defense has undoubtedly evolved throughout the course of the year. Reece James has played very little, and Malo Gusto has replaced him but has missed numerous games, primarily because James’ absence has pushed him beyond his limits. Levi Colwill began the season as a left back, followed by Marc Cucurella, then Ben Chilwell, and now Cucurella is back. Axel Disasi and Thiago Silva played a lot centrally, then Silva was dropped, and now he’s back. Trevoh Chalobah missed the entire season, returned in the spring, and has quickly established himself as our finest defender. The majority of these changes were imposed on manager Mauricio Pochettino by injury, and it’s actually crazy to imagine how How little we’ve been able to build a standard back four since August.
Sometimes you’re left questioning your head; we anticipated Silva and Chalobah to continue as our central defensive duo last night, but they were replaced by Disasi and Benoit Badiashile. That was apparently a medical decision, another forced change that resulted in another 5 goals conceded and us ultimately breaking the record. The real question is how many we’ll ship by the end of the campaign. At the present rate, we will finish the season with 67 goals conceded. That is more than treble the 33 conceded by Thomas Tuchel in 2021-2022.