Despite winning two of their opening three games of the Premier League season, Chelsea have one of the worst defences in the top-flight.
A lot of the talk in the early stages of Xabi Alonso’s tenure has been around Chelsea’s low possession numbers. The Blues have averaged 36.3% possession across their opening three fixtures, with only Hull City having less.
But the Blues have conceded seven times across their three matches, the joint-third worst in the Premier League. They’ve averaged 15 shots conceded per 90 minutes, with only five teams facing more.
So what exactly is leading to Chelsea’s defensive issues?
In this article, we’ll cover
Chelsea’s press
Alonso has been setting Chelsea up to press from a 5-2-3 shape with an underload in their front press so far this season. The front three saw narrow against Fulham, looking to manage the two centre-backs and one of the pivot. Joao Pedro looked to shadow-mark Sander Berge, while Reece James stepped up to mark Alex Iwobi.
When they moved the ball down one flank, either the ball-side wing-back would step up to the Fulham full-back or — if the wing-back was pinned — the inside forward would track across or a midfielder to step across with someone else taking their reference.
This allowed Fulham to find ways of building out and finding the spare man with their overload in the buildup.
The press was slightly different instructionally against Arsenal. Although Chelsea still retained a -1 in the front press and a +1 on the opposition centre-forward.
While Palmer and Pedro were looking to jump onto the two Arsenal centre-backs, Rogers was tasked with following Ben White as he advanced. This allowed Arsenal to use their +1 in the buildup by dropping them into the backline and bringing the ball forward down the right side under little-to-no pressure.
Pedro Neto also followed Riccardo Calafiori on the opposite side. So if Palmer stayed narrow on one of the midfielders dropping into the Arsenal backline, Gabriel could receive in a slightly wider position to bring the ball forward in a similar way down the left.
Wide management
Teams have been finding ways to build through Chelsea’s front press with relative ease. So the next important detail is what they do once they progress, and have more settled phases of possession. Alonso wants his defensive block to remain active, looking to transition from a lower 5-4-1/5-2-3 shape to apply pressure on the ball with triggered jumps.
However, due to the active mindest of Chelsea’s defensive block, teams have found ways to exploit their jumping references. Especially when it comes to building in wide areas.
Rice’s position for Arsenal was key to kickstarting these phases of play. He became the +1 to beat Chelsea’s pres in a right centre-back position, then advancing down the Blues’ left side.
White was already advanced to drag Rogers deep, Reece James looked to occupy Martin Odegaard inside, Kai Havertz drifted over onto Wesley Fofana and Jorrel Hato was managing Bukayo Saka. So Arsenal were able to create five-on-four overloads down that side. Arsenal players were then looking to combine and rotate in these areas. It forced marker switches between the Chelsea players, and looked to entice them to apply pressure on the ball.
This often allowed Arsenal to find the spare man, forcing to the next jump from the defensive or midfield line to apply pressure on the ball.
Deja vu
There were examples of similar moments down Chelsea’s right flank against Brighton and Hove Albion, with Fofana, Malo Gusto and Neto having to deal with the Seagulls’ rotations.
There was evidence of this early in the first half. Neto was dragged deeper by Maxim De Cuyper holding width, while Gusto had to jump out to apply pressure to Ferdi Kadioglu. Fofana then had to jump out to Malick Yalcouye on the ball.
On this occasion, each of the players had swapped marking responsibilities. But in the early implementation of Alonso’s defensive schemes, the moments of indecision when switching markers and jumping out in the press has lead to good opportunities for the opposition to find advantages.
Midfield issues
Chelsea aren’t just being opened up in wide areas, though. Their activity within a defensive block has also led to spaces between the defensive and midfield lines.
Odegaard’s positioning caused a lot of problems for Chelsea at the Emirates. With Rice dropping into the backline, and Myles Lewis-Skelly acting as a single pivot, only one Chelsea man would setp out to mark the latter. It left James as the only player protecting central areas between the front press and defensive line.
Odegaard’s dropping movements from high to low became an issue, with James inclined to follow the Norwegian. This often opened a huge gap between the lines. The defensive line didn’t opt to step up, keeping a +1 in the last line with a two-on-one against Havertz.
The word ‘clarity’ comes to mind when teams look to implement new pressing ideas and defensive schemes. Moments of indecision can leave open spaces for the opposition to exploit.
All three of the issues discussed in this analysis have a mixture of structural and implementation issues, so it will be interesting to see how things develop over time for Alonso’s Chelsea.