Sky Sports have just been speaking about Chelsea’s dire defensive form this season, noting that the Blues have now conceded 57 goals this season.
That means it’s already their top Premier League campaign in terms of goals conceded – and there are still 6 games to play. They don’t offer much by way of explanation – they just point out that we’ve not been able to name a settled defence all year.
You can see their little feature in the clip embedded here:
Chelsea have now conceded the most goals in their Premier League history… 😲
and there's still six games to go 🫣 pic.twitter.com/ujPph9CyGY
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 24, 2024
It’s certainly true that our defence has been changing all year. Reece James has played very little, Malo Gusto has replaced him but missed plenty of games here and there, mainly because he’s been pushed to the limit by James’ absence.
On the left, Levi Colwill started the season as left back, then Marc Cucurella took over, then Ben Chilwell took over, now Cucurella is back again.
Axel Disasi and Thiago Silva played a lot centrally, then Silva was dropped, now Silva’s back again. Trevoh Chalobah missed the whole season, came back in the spring and has forced his way in as our best defender.
Most of these changes have been forced on manager Mauricio Pochettino by injury, and it’s actually crazy to think how little we’ve been able to construct a regular back 4 since August.
Sometimes you’re just left scratching your head though – we expected Silva and Chalobah to continue as our central defensive partnership last night, but they were replaced by Disasi and Benoit Badiashile. That was presumably a medical decision, another enforced change which led to another 5 goals conceded, and us finally smashing that record.
Quite how many we will have shipped by the end of the campaign is the real question. At current rate, we will end the season with 67 goals conceded. That’s more than double the 33 conceded under Thomas Tuchel in 2021-2022.
