12 points from 10 games
Chelsea slumped to eleventh place in the Premier League table on Saturday afternoon, after huffing and puffing against a strong Brentford side and somehow coming away without a single point. The Stamford Bridge side certainly dominated possession and many of the chances in the first half, but goals from Ethan Pinnock and Bryan Mbeumo in the second half earned all three points for Thomas Frank and his side.
“I’m really disappointed. The game doesn’t reflect the performance,” noted a dejected Mauricio Pochettino in the post-match press conference. “We need to be more clinical and be strong. It’s disappointing because I thought we dominated and created chances, but if you don’t score the confidence goes down.” The result now means that Chelsea have scored just 13 goals from their first 10 games of the season, while conceding 11. But what will worry fans of the club more than anything else is the fact that the club have managed to pick up just 12 points in the league since Pochettino became the head coach.
How bad has Mauricio Pochettino’s start been at Chelsea?
With just 12 points from 10 league games, the Argentine tactician’s record at Stamford Bridge naturally stands at 1.2 points per game in the Premier League. Not only is that a dreadful return in its own right – as all can see from their placement in the league table – but it’s also particularly bad when we compare Pochettino to the Chelsea head coaches that came before him. For example, when we exclude interim managers in the role such as Guus Hiddink and Frank Lampard’s second stint, we can see that this is the worst start in the league for any of Chelsea’s last 10 full-time managers. Which involves a run of time that goes all the way back to 2008, when Luiz Felipe Scolari arrived at the club.
Why haven’t Chelsea performed well under Mauricio Pochettino?
The Chelsea manager may believe that his side probably deserved more from Saturday’s game, but he was also quick to point out what may be the main issue. “Sometimes, when you’re not playing well, you can win and that’s because you have the real trust, the real belief,” said the Blues boss. “It’s a very young group who we need to improve in this area more than any other. It’s more about building our mentality and our trust.” And Pochettino isn’t wrong. So far this season his squad’s average age stands at 23.7, which is the youngest in the entire Premier League with only Burnley managing to field a starting XI with a lower younger age than what Chelsea routinely play.
Chelsea’s most expensive signings of all time
This, of course, is due to the club’s unprecedented turnover in players in the past few years, with no less than 12 new players joining the club in the summer transfer window and 23 either leaving on permanent deals or on loan. When we add that to the 16 players that joined the club and 17 that were sold or loaned out last season, it certainly explains why Pochettino is calling for patience as he tries to make sense of a new and extremely young squad. But whether the Argentine manager will be given that time to build a squad capable of challenging at the top of the table remains to be seen.
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