Analysis: Chelsea lacking variety of goal threats - set pieces and long range shooting

Contribution article from Billy Young

This is a contribution article By Billy Young (who is also a community member here).

Watching Chelsea on Saturday afternoon felt like deja-vu. We’ve seen the same pattern over the last 12 months, opponents (in this instance Brentford) know that if they come to the bridge, sit deep, dig in and frustrate Chelsea, we will begin to panic, the crowd will become anxious, the game will begin to open up, and they can nick an away win from a counter attack or a set piece. And this is exactly what happened on Saturday as well as against Nottingham Forrest and Aston Villa too.

Opposition teams do not fear coming to The Bridge anymore - Chelsea are far too easy to play against and opponents know that if they keep a low block, Chelsea will struggle to break it down.

I actually don’t think we’ll struggle too much away from home this year and it’s no surprise our best performances have come when teams have tried to come at us. But the home form is a real problem and its something Mauricio Pochettino needs to address right now. One win in thirteen is terrible and I dread to think what could’ve happened in the Luton game if it wasn’t for an early bit of individual brilliance from Raheem Sterling.

Watching Chelsea it seems like we always need to score the same perfect goal. I was watching on Saturday genuinely wondering when we last scored a goal from a set piece, or from a shot from outside the box. Sometimes, it’s those goals that win you games; whether that be in narrow 1-0 wins or the fact that once we score one, the opposition game plan will need to change and the game will open up and we can in turn score more goals.

Looking at the stats, Chelsea have scored one goal from outside the box in the Premier League this season. Anyone else trying to remember which goal this was too?

Well, ironically it was Mykhailo Mudryk’s cross against Arsenal, and yes it was a cross – I’m not buying that he meant it! That ranks Chelsea (joint) 15th in the Premier League for this stat, and if it wasn’t for this slice of luck we’d be one of four teams without a goal from outside the box.

We ranked (joint) 13th last season with only 6 goals from outside the box, with only Crystal Palace, Man Utd, Wolves, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forrest below us in this stat. At the other end of the table, we have Newcastle (14) and Manchester City (15), with Leicester, Spurs, Arsenal and Brighton making up the rest of the (joint) top 5.

Newcastle, City, Arsenal and Brighton especially are all teams where (like Chelsea) opponents will sit in deep and it’ll be on them to break them down, whereas Spurs and Leicester have/had players like Harry Kane and James Maddison who have that quality to be able to score from anywhere in and around the box.

Unfortunately at Chelsea we don’t appear to have a player with that quality, or is this just because we don’t seem to try? I remember last season in the Palace game where Connor Gallagher scored a wonder goal in the final minutes to take all three points - he actually forced a good save from Flekken on Saturday from outside the box - so why doesn’t he do that more often? He was prolific in his loan spell at Palace.

Or could Cole Palmer or Enzo be the answer? No doubt they have the quality, so I would like to see them take some shots from outside and around the box. The last wonder strike I remember at The Bridge was from Mateo Kovacic vs Liverpool a couple of seasons ago!

For further context, the last time we won the Premier League we ranked second for goals outside the box, only behind Liverpool.

We need to see our midfielders chipping with goals, it’s not just on the attackers. You look at Declan Rice so far this season for Arsenal or Rodri at City -both holding midfielders - scoring important goals in tight matches to earn their team points.

Our only goal from midfield in the Premier League this season came from Carney Chukwuemeka, who frustratingly has been injured ever since, but one goal in 10 games from Chelsea’s midfield with the quality we have in there and the money spent is not good enough.

I think set pieces are also a massive issue for Chelsea. Last season we ranked 16th in the Premier League for goals scored from set pieces scoring just 8 with only 5 of them from corners.

Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal and City were all in the top five for corners scored (10-13) and set pieces (14-17). Why are they so much more effective from set pieces than us? Is it the fact they have better dead ball specialists or are they better drilled? It’s probably a bit of both but again, the ability to score from set pieces and especially corners is a massive advantage for any team so its both bizarre and hugely frustrating watching us waste and play them short. Let’s make the most of Levi Colwill, Thiago Silva, Axel Disasi etc!

Look at James Ward-Prowse and specifically our game against West Ham at the start of the season, we were dominating the game and they score from a corner. Or look at when Spurs were down to 10 men away at Luton and managed to win the game from a well-worked set piece. It’s a hugely underrated tool to have the ability to score from set pieces and so far this season, we haven’t scored from one (not counting penalties).

I feel we really lack from a dead ball specialist, I was one of the only people who vouched for James Ward-Prowse, he gives you something different – another way of unlocking defences. Not every goal needs to be intricate play between the front three.

People could argue that we just struggle to score goals in general, but I think it’s lazy to solely blame that on the attackers, we need to find other ways to score goals.

If we were to score more goals from other areas, the game would certainly open up for our attackers meaning we can score even more goals and in turn build confidence, its all part of a chain. If a midfielder drives one in from 20 yards in the opening half an hour, or one of our centre halves heads in from a corner, all of a sudden the opposition game plan changes, the game opens up and the likes of Mudryk, Jackson, and Sterling become much more effective.

The top teams find ways to win and that is something we need to do now, we need to score a variety of goals from a variety of areas, not just relying on the front three to produce. We don’t have an Eden Hazard anymore who can win a tight game on his own, and it’s times like these you truly appreciate Frank Lampard’s goals from midfield and even John Terry’s threat from set pieces. Both have qualities our team would kill for now.

Reece James coming back should help, he brings another dimension to our game, particularly going forward. Let’s hope he can stay fit and we can go on a run but the point still stands – we need to find other ways to score goals especially when teams sit deep.

Billy Young