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The Kelly Criterion: Chelsea positives under Mauricio Pochettino despite the blues

By Liam Kelly
Football
Fri October 27, 2023 · 1y ago

If you take a swift glance at the Premier League table, it all looks awfully mediocre for Chelsea.

Saturday evening's dramatic 2-2 draw with Arsenal leaves the Blues in 10th place, sitting on 12 points after winning three games, drawing three games and losing three games — a picture of mediocrity.

Mediocrity is well below the level required for a club of Chelsea's stature, of course, or resources for that matter, but it would be irresponsible to ignore the positive signs Mauricio Pochettino's squad have shown at the beginning of a new Chelsea chapter.

After all, the weekend game is a fitting microcosm of their first campaign under Pochettino thus far, not quite getting the result that a good performance warrants.

It's easy to forget the manner and/or circumstances in which disappointing results happen, but it is the required context to any analysis. And there is plenty of context to be added to Chelsea's 2023/24 season already.

Contextualising Chelsea

I could even stretch back to their previous campaign and the journey the club took to now have Pochettino in charge.

Chelsea's 2022/23 season was plain bad. A swollen squad was a sticking point for multiple managers, and just 38 goals scored in 38 Premier League games resulted in a shocking 12th-place finish.

Obviously, more should have been expected of them, but that doesn't mean that Pochettino didn't inherit a poor position this summer.

Then there is the much-needed squad turnover within the confines of a new transfer policy that continued in the off-season, before injuries hit in key positions for the new head coach. In that case, what more could really have been asked of Pochettino in the circumstances?

I, for one, am incredibly impressed at the job he has done during his short tenure, again displayed rather well in the match-up with Arsenal at the weekend.

There's no doubt Chelsea should have won that game against last season's runners-up (xG: CHE 1.36 - 1.06 ARS), just as they should have won at West Ham, at home to Nottingham Forest and at Bournemouth, perhaps even at home to Aston Villa.

Whether it was poor game management, poor discipline and/or poor execution in attack and defence that cost them in each, it, as mentioned, should not be forgotten that the Blues have managed a level of performance that surpasses their current position with an inexperienced team in a new system.

Indeed, the average age of Chelsea's team against Arsenal was just 24, which includes evergreen 39-year-old captain Thiago Silva.

The future certainly looks bright at Stamford Bridge.

Tough upcoming schedule

Perhaps not the immediate future, however. Chelsea have a devilish set of fixtures upcoming.

They face Brentford, Tottenham, Manchester City, Newcastle, Brighton and Manchester United in their next six, a run of games that might yield few points for Pochettino's side, but I'd again urge you to focus on the manner and/or circumstances of the results of these fixtures.

Results mean just a tiny bit less at this point of what is a clearly long-term project, the positives in the process of how Chelsea go about things mattering just a tiny bit more.

The manager said as much after an ultimately disappointing draw on Saturday.

“We need to take the positives from 77 minutes,” said Pochettino. “If not, you need to ask (every) other coach how they concede two goals. That is football.

“We’re at the beginning of our project, that’s why we need to take positive things because I think we played really well. After 77 minutes we [had been the] better [team] and hadn’t conceded too many chances. That is credit to the team.”

That is football. And that is why we shouldn't view it solely through the prism of results, especially when it comes to betting on the sport.

To forget the 77 minutes of excellence to focus on the final minutes after a goalkeeping mistake that handed Arsenal a lifeline would be silly. That was not the mediocrity we see in the standings.

It is on us, the punters, to remember it for future use, to note how we can benefit in the bigger picture and, indeed, the bigger project.

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