Chelsea behind just Arsenal and Liverpool and currently beating Man City in pure dominance stat

With the season reaching the halfway point, it’s interesting to now have a look at the stats and the data and see what conclusions we can draw about how Chelsea are getting on.

Maresca’s Chelsea show love of ball possession with half-way stats

The top teams in the Premier League so far this season in terms of possession by side.

A stat so simple you barely see it mentioned these days is possession, and in that category Chelsea are third in the league.

Liverpool dominate on 60.8%, a full 2% more than second placed Arsenal on 58.8%, and us on 58.7%.

We’re clear of Man City on 58%. There’s then a huge drop off to Manchester United on 52.9%.

What makes our record so impressive, in a way, is that we picked up so many red cards early on in the campaign. Leave those games out and we’d probably be ahead of Arsenal and pretty close to Liverpool. It’s a sign of the way our football under Maresca has developed into a very slow, patient possession game.

Meanwhile Maresca’s mentor Pep Guardiola has gone the other way, with City averaging less possession than us as they increasingly look to go more direct into Erling Haaland.

Overall, having a good ability to control and hold the ball should help us in a hectic winter period where we face a lot of games in quick succession. Let’s hope we can get the goals and the clean sheets to go with it.

In other news…

Enzo Maresca gave a little bonus presser last night to update us on a few things, including minor injuries to two Chelsea players who are unlikely to feature this evening.

Chelsea and other Premier League teams are sniffing around a rising star from Ligue 1, and it sounds like bids could be coming in as soon as January from various teams.