Ex-Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf said he “screamed” in frustration after watching Conor Gallagher make a poor pass in the 0-0 draw against Bournemouth.
The Blues had no end product at the Vitality Stadium and, Leboeuf was left dumbstruck by his former team’s ineptitude in the final third of the pitch, using the Gallagher example to make his point:
“[Conor] Gallagher had a chance to play an easy four-yard pass to Jackson and he put it behind him. I got up from my sofa, screamed and said ‘how is that possible?’. They do silly, stupid, clumsy stuff in the final third which does not allow them to score goals.”
It was certainly not the only moment during the 90 minutes where a player made the wrong decision or failed to execute a straightforward pass.
Malo Gusto and Mykhailo Mudryk, in particular, also had plenty of opportunities to deliver dangerous balls into the box but they didn’t provide the quality required.
Chelsea’s scoring problem
The Bournemouth match just typified how wasteful the Blues have been in front of goal. According to Understat, Chelsea have created 10.64 xG this season, which is the fourth-best total in the league.
However, Mauricio Pochettino’s team have only hit the back of the net 5 times, having drawn a blank in their last two matches.
You can’t blame results on injuries
While Pochettino did refuse to make excuses for Chelsea’s poor start to the season, he did mention the fact that 12 players are out injured at the moment.
However, it should be pointed out that the starting eleven that played against Bournemouth on Sunday cost £390m to assemble, while the likes of Chilwell and Palmer (who came off the bench) cost £85m.
Pochettino needs to get a lot more out of the players currently at his disposal. 5 points from 5 matches is not good enough.
