Passing in the Back Compared to Others

This stats sheet came out after Arsenal's 2-3 loss to Swansea (brought to my attention by my friends over at The Arsenal Column). The Gunners are obviously the focus of this comparison but it is interesting to see how Chelsea stacks up against other top teams in the league.

As far as 'unsuccessful passes in own half' is concerned, Chelsea are on per with the likes of City and United. It is really no that surprising if you consider that Terry, in the league, has one of the best pass completion percentage (91.4% successful - 1163/1273): only Swansea's Britton is better (with 93.3% successful - 1128/1209) than the Chelsea captain among those who have played more than 20 games this season.

However, City are doing much better than the rest in making the least number of 'unsuccessful passes in defensive third'. Not much I could say at this moment other than, "Must. Pass. Better. In. Defensive. Third."

Thoughts and theories on these statistics?

Carefree, wherever you may be...

Kevin de Bruyne and Snowy Go for Chelsea Medical

Okay, so I'm not the first one to make that connection between Kevin de Bruyne, who, according to the reports, is on the verge of signing for Chelsea, and Tintin the Belgian comic hero. Matt Law is totally spot on (which, I admit, is a rarity) when he says, "De Bruyne shares more than a passing physical resemblance [to Tintin], thanks to his fair hair, schoolboy features and slender frame."

I am an avid fan of "The Adventures of Tintin" series: I have read pretty much all the titles available. So, if I didn't make that picture of Tintin as Kevin de Bruyne, no one will.

Carefree, wherever you may be...    

Chelsea Scout Notes from SWANSEA 3-2 Arsenal

After that narrow victory over their London neighbor QPR in the FA Cup, Chelsea travels to Wales for a league encounter against Swansea City. Although Brendan Rogers's side came back empty-handed from Stadium of Light in their last league adventure, they played and beat Arsenal at their own game, the week before, in a entertaining 3-2 home victory. Through fluent passing and ball possession from the back, Swansea patiently took the Gunners apart. Here are some scout notes from that thrilling game of football.

AVB vs AVB: Rock, Paper, Scissors!

Making tough decisions is one of the major job requirements for a top European football manager. From benching Lampard to playing Romeu ahead of Mikel, Villas-Boas has already made some big calls as a Chelsea manager. When presented with two or more viable options, this is how I imagine AVB finds his answer -- rock, paper, scissors! Incidentally, he always comes out as the victor.

Carefree, wherever you may be... 

The Real AVB

Andre Villas-Boas is pegged as the "tactician" by the football media. Is that all? Or is there more to the man?

Corners Uncut: Chelsea Offensive Corners Statistics

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Last week, I wrote a piece detailing Chelsea’s defensive corners statistics – who conceded corners, who defended them and so on. That review showed some surprising (e.g. Ivanovic’s high corner-conceding rate) and some not so surprising facts (e.g. Drogba’s corner clearance rate).

So, I thought it would be interesting to look into how Chelsea does at the other end when they are the ones trying to score from corners. Who wins corners for Chelsea? Who crosses these corners? And who attacks the ball successfully when a cross comes in?

To get these answers, I, as always, looked through the statistics available from Guardian Chalkboard, ESPN Soccernet and Yahoo Fantasy Football databases. Here’s how Chelsea has done so far in the league when it comes to offensive corners.

Norwich City 0 - 0 Chelsea: Dominant 2nd Half, Can't Find the Winner

Chelsea were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw by a hardworking Norwich side. Chelsea totally dominated the second half but failed to find the winner. Villas-Boas's Chelsea dropped points for the first time in 2012.

Scout Scribbles on Norwich City's Various Formations

I wrote the entire scout report on Norwich looking at the various formations Paul Lambert used through out the season. I saved the post in Blogger and tried to post it via my iPad at home but lost the whole thing due to some complications involved in trying to use Blogger on a tablet. Everything gone!

I am in no mood to re-write the whole thing but here are some key points I made in that, now, long lost post.

Corners Uncut: Chelsea Defensive Corner Statistics

Yesterday, the official Chelsea FC Twitter account tweeted this interesting statistics: Chelsea are the only side in the Premier League not to concede from a corner yet this season. Instantly, this piece of information awakens my inner nerd in the manner that the light of the full moon might rouse a werewolf.

How many corners are Chelsea conceding? Who's conceding these corners? How many of these corners were taken successfully? And most importantly who is defending them? These are some of the questions that I want answered after reading that tweet. So, as any football statistical nerd will do, I dove into the data available at Guardian Chalkboard, WhoScored and ESPN SoccerNet. Here's what I came up with.

Breaking Down Lampard's Goal vs Sunderland

A close look at the build-up play to the Frank Lampard goal against Sunderland takes the ring at the WeAintGotNoHistory Arena. The usual detailed analysis. Same report by the same author, yours truly. Just a different host.

Click here to read the report.

Carefree, wherever you may be...

Chelsea 1 - 0 Sunderland: A Narrow Escape

Jamie McDonald/Getty Images

The new year continues to smile down on Villas-Boas as Chelsea grabbed their third victory in 2012 by beating an on-form Sunderland side 1-0. Chelsea dominated most of the game but Sunderland had their chances, especially towards the end of the game.

Chelsea Scout Notes from Sunderland 1 - 0 Man City

Stu Forster/Getty Images

So far, 2012 has been good to Villas-Boas and Chelsea -- played two and won two. But the encounter with Sunderland, revived under Martin O'Neill, will not be an easy task. The Black Cats have now won 4 out of their last 6 league games under their new manager. During this impressive run, they have even beaten the league leaders Manchester City. In case you are wondering how they managed to do that, here are the scout notes from their 1-0 win over City.

From Left to Right: How Chelsea Scores

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I was staring at this player statistics table from ESPN Soccernet website the other day (as you do when you are pretending to be busy doing something at work), and I noticed something. Our league top goal scorer Sturridge plays dominantly on the right while our league top assist providers Mata and Cole play dominantly on the left. Hmmmm...

This seems to suggest a certain pattern to the way Chelsea scores goals so far in the league -- balls come in from the left for the players on the right to score. Is this true? If so how many of the league goals are scored in this manner? And how do they look like on Guardian Chalkboard? Such questions tickled the nerdy side of me and this blog post was born.

Chelsea 4 - 0 Portsmouth: What Has/Hasn't Worked

Ian Walton/Getty Images

Just like many Chelsea fans around the world, I did not see this game because it was not televised. By all accounts, it was an uninspiring performance, undeserved of the 4-0 score line.

Not actually seeing the game as a whole totally disqualifies me from writing a match report. However, in watching the extended highlights of the goals, I noticed how the build-ups and the goals point to what has recently worked and what has not in terms of scoring goals. For example, whipping in high crosses have not worked well for Chelsea but driving in low crosses have. Slow, careful build-up play hasn't worked as well as fast-paced counter attacks. Here is a close look at the goals.

Raw Numbers: December in Review

In this edition of Raw Numbers, we will look at some of the statistics from the month of December. These numbers are all from the Premier League, mainly, as I've said in the past, there are more detail statistics available for the league games, thanks to Guardian Chalkboard and so on.

In this post, I will be using data from WhoScored, ESPN and the aforementioned Guardian Chalkboard. As with any compilation of data, there is room for human error. Now, let's hear what the numbers have to say about the team's performance and more.

Torres vs Wolves: A Playmaker-esque Performance

Fernando Torres failed to find the back of the net (yet again!) against Wolves. But no one can deny that the Spaniard had a very good game -- not as a striker but as a striker-turned-playermaker. He only managed to get 3 goal attempts (2 of which are off target) but he crafted three good goal-scoring opportunities for his teammates. As noted in my match analysis, Torres did not play as the focal point of Chelsea's attack but rather as forward who shifted from left to right in order to keep the attack flowing. His movements off the ball and his incredible passes were integral to Chelsea's dominance over Wolves. Here is a close look at three chances created by Torres.

Four Points to Ponder: Wolves 1 - 2 Chelsea

Michael Steele/Getty Images

After saying 'Goodbye' to 2011 with a defeat, Chelsea greets 2012 with a victory over Wolves. For the most part, this was a game that pretty much stuck to the recent script: Chelsea dominates but create little chances, Chelsea takes the lead out of nowhere, the opposition equalize late in the game and the team heads for another disappointing result. But, I imagine, to the sound of a record abruptly stopped by the DJ, the visiting team found a late winner via Frank "I-Always-Arrive-Late-Into-The-Box" Lampard. Here are some key points that I found interesting from the game.