After 3 matches, Chelsea is in the group of the most effective attacking teams in the Premier League. They scored 8 goals, co-leading, creating 5.56 xGs excluding penalties, ranking fifth, launching 48 shots and 93 touches in the opponent's penalty area.
These figures are even more impressive when one-third of Chelsea's matches took place away from Arsenal, the team with the best defense in the league. Arsenal only received a total of 0.93 xG in 3 matches, while only Man City had a lower average xG received per match.
Chelsea are creating more xGs, shots and touches in the opponent's penalty area than Liverpool, even though coach Arne Slot's team has the easiest schedule in the league.
But the paradox lies in ball control ability. Chelsea only controls the ball on average 36.3%, the second lowest in the Premier League. If only counting ball possession time in the attacking area, an index often called "field inclination", The Blues are also only ranked 17th in the Premier League.
Controlling the ball of course does not mean that a team will score more goals or be stronger. However, the best teams often both create many opportunities for themselves and limit the opponent's attacking ability.
Bringing the ball to the opponent's half helps a team have more scoring opportunities, while also making the opponent have less time to control the ball in dangerous areas. And Chelsea is going in a completely different direction.
Since the 2009-2010 season, there have been 58 Premier League teams controlling the ball below 40% after the first 3 matches of the season. Chelsea is the team with the best attacking record in this group in terms of xG, number of shots and number of touches in the penalty area.
Only 5 teams in that period created at least 4.0 xG after 3 matches when possession was below 40%. These were Brentford in the 2024-2025 and 2023-2024 seasons, West Ham in the 2023-2024 season, Tottenham in the 2022-2023 season and Leicester City in the 2017-2018 season. Neither of them finished the season in the top 8 leading teams.
Since the 2009-2010 season, no Premier League team has finished the season with a ball possession rate below 40% but possessing a negative goal difference. The best achievement belongs to Newcastle in the 2018-2019 season with a goal difference of -1. Swansea holds the record for the highest number of points in this group when winning 56 points in the 2014-2015 season and finishing eighth.
Expanding to the top 5 European leagues also does not bring many positive examples. Espanyol in the 2016-2017 season won 56 points, equal to Swansea's record, while Cologne in the 2015-2016 season had the best goal difference with +10.
Those numbers show that Chelsea's current operation is a very unusual case. Alonso is helping The Blues create many opportunities even though they do not control most of the game. The question is whether Chelsea can maintain this efficiency throughout the season.
We want to play more effectively, maintain the current attacking quality or even do better. However, Chelsea also needs to find balance and become more solid in defense.
We don't want to continue conceding many goals. That is the responsibility of all players, from strikers to goalkeepers" - Alonso said.
