Chelsea 'should be FOURTH' according to data, claims Poch

Stuart Telford

• 30 Mar 2024 17:17 GMT
• 3 min read

Mauricio Pochettino has said that his embattled Chelsea side should be fourth in the Premier League taking underlying data into account.

The Blues have had a bad case of the blues since Pochettino took over last summer - even if their malaise preceded him - and find themselves mired in 11th place, 16 points away from the Champions League spots, after Saturday's 2-2 draw with Burnley.

It is not the return on investment Todd Boehly will have been hoping for after spending more than £1 billion on new players since first taking control of the club in 2022.

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While Cole Palmer - a £40 million arrival from Manchester City last summer - bagged a brace, Mykhailo Mudryk blanked once again while the £100m Moises Caicedo was subbed off for Raheem Sterling on 73 minutes.

It made Pochettino's pre-game claim look laughable.

Poch: 'The data means we're in a good way'

"If you look at all the data, in the table we should be in fourth position," he told the press pack before kick-off. "But for different reasons, we are not there. What the data means is that we are in a good way.

"In which area do we need to improve? It's things with time. We need to compete better, small details. You can only get this with experience with time playing together.

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"It's easy to find the data when you want to kill someone. But when the data is good and reflects the team is doing well but for different reasons we're not getting the results we deserve, trust in the process."

Pochettino has been subjected to fans chanting Jose Mourinho's name in recent weeks, but continues to have the backing of the board, at least publicly.

Among other key performance indicators, Chelsea are 13t for shots this season, ninth for shots on target, and 10th for touches in the opposition box. They have the sixth-best xG, meanwhile.