The numbers behind Chelsea’s woeful capitulation make for some very grim reading. Against Brighton this week, they suffered their fifth Premier League defeat in a row without scoring a goal, confirming their worst run since 1912 – the identical 12 months the Titanic set sail.
The one other team to go five games with out a win this season is Wolves who’ve been doomed since before Christmas. It has cost Liam Rosenior his job, relieved of his duties after just 106 days on the helm.
The Blues were comfortably outrun by Brighton midweek with the Seagulls managing 101.2km to Chelsea’s 94km. It was amongst the various things that sparked an irate response from Rosenior within the aftermath, insisting only three of his players ‘gave every little thing’ on a bleak night on the AMEX.
With Rosenior’s authority weakening over the previous few weeks it has raised the familiar possibility of players’ downing tools, reluctant to place within the hard yards for a person they not place confidence in.
But those running stats predate Rosenior’s reign. They’ve been a theme all season. Chelsea have been outrun in all 34 Premier League fixtures this term. In October and November when there have been still whispers of a title challenge in west London, they were still coming up short in distance covered, outrun by Liverpool of their 2-1 victory over the Reds and within the thrilling 1-1 draw with Arsenal, each at Stamford Bridge.
Manchester City and Arsenal occupy first and third for total distance covered this season which might suggest teams that run greater than their opponents have more success. But it surely shouldn’t be a precise science. Leeds United, flirting with relegation until only recently, are second in that table. Stacked running stats don’t routinely ensure higher performances and higher results.
‘It’s a simple stat to take a look at when things aren’t going well,’ said Steven Smith, CEO and founding father of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics.
‘But you might have to take into context what has been happening elsewhere within the season. It is straightforward to get carried away with numbers that could be misleading. I might never take a look at running distance and suggest that’s the explanation why a team wins or loses. You might want to take a look at the entire picture over the whole lot of a season.’
Chelsea’s set-up not built for outrunning opposition?
Not every team will likely be set as much as outrun the opposition. Rosenior’s predecessor Enzo Maresca stressed a 12 months ago his squad was not equipped to handle transitional games were more miles will likely be clocked up.
‘If you attack quick, the opposition attack quick and it becomes a transition game,’ Maresca said last May. ‘And we aren’t adequate for transition games. When you see our worst moment of the season, or games where we struggle, they’re all games where the sport became transition.’
Things clearly turned bleak in Rosenior’s final weeks and Chelsea fans may draw their very own conclusions over who has really been putting a shift in and who isn’t. But this has been a season-long trend for the them. If it was a priority for the club now, why wasn’t it when things were going well?
‘It simply won’t be a goal of Chelsea’s to outrun every team,’ Smith said. ‘It won’t just be style they are attempting to play. That will change with a brand new manager. But distance covered shouldn’t be the identical as intensity.
‘Yes in fact, taking a look at the space number can show they’re being beaten in that regard, but winning that may not be the plan. Given it’s been the case all season, perhaps it’s a situation where it has not been checked out internally as a negative thing. They haven’t been losing every game. The previous few months haven’t been the usual they need from a results perspective but we haven’t seen a drastic change in that period when it comes to physical output.’
So what is going on in training, then?
If running distance per game isn’t the goal for Chelsea’s team of analysts and training staff, then what’s being pursed in training?
‘There is perhaps players on the sector that they need covering distance and getting up and down the sector and others they don’t,’ Smith continued. ‘But teams will even be counting things just like the variety of accelerations and decelerations, the variety of high speed running meters a player or team may need. Or the variety of entries above a certain speed threshold.
‘They is perhaps measuring those as key performance indicators moderately than distance covered. You may have someone covering 15km a game and never get a meaningful touch on the ball and have someone running really fast in shorter bursts in a game be involved within the decisive moments. They’re two completely various things and might have completely different outcomes on a game. It shouldn’t be a fitness competition.’
Indeed, while Chelsea trailed Manchester United in total distance covered of their recent defeat at Stamford Bridge, they finished the match with a greater sprint percentage than Michael Carrick’s side.
Whatever metric you employ, Chelsea’s performances have been below a suitable level for too long. One other change within the dugout flings them into the unknown once more.
While only Chelsea’s staff with know what specific thresholds and targets have and haven’t been met in recent weeks, the numbers on this occasion won’t tell the complete story.
MORE: Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha injury latest ahead of Manchester United vs Brentford
MORE: ‘A Spanish team playing in Serie A’ – Is Cesc Fabregas the person to avoid wasting Chelsea?
MORE: Premier League title race is way from over despite Arsenal’s ‘bottle’