294 yellows in three seasons
Three managers have tried. Mauricio Pochettino, Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior all left Chelsea’s discipline problem roughly where they found it. Since Pochettino arrived in July 2023, Chelsea have collected 294 yellow cards and 14 reds, more of each than any other Premier League club across those three seasons. Three of the eight highest single-season card tallies in Premier League history belong to Chelsea, and all three have come since 2023-24. Pochettino’s first year, 105 yellows and four reds, tops the entire list.
Xabi Alonso now owns the problem. His recent record offers thin reassurance. At Real Madrid last season his side were shown six red cards across 28 competitive games before his mid-January sacking, a total only Real Oviedo bettered in that window.
Try it for $0.99.
Two old heads in a very young room
Chelsea fielded the youngest average starting XI in the Premier League last season at 24 years and 194 days. They did the same in 2024-25 and in 2023-24. The bench told a starker story: an average named substitute age of 22 years and 83 days, more than 18 months younger than any rival.
Danny Welbeck, 35, and Jordan Henderson, 36, arrived this summer to correct that. The scale of the imbalance is worth measuring. Thirty players turned out in the league for Chelsea last season, none of them aged over 28, and between them they had 2,184 Premier League appearances, with Pedro Neto’s 180 the highest individual figure. Henderson and Welbeck bring 863 between them and rank among only 46 players ever to reach 400 in the competition.
Game management was where the inexperience showed. Chelsea dropped 19 points from winning positions and recovered 14 from losing ones. Seventeen of those dropped points came at Stamford Bridge, three more than any other club shed at home.
Palmer, Joao Pedro and an empty midweek
Cole Palmer has 14 goal involvements in 34 competitive appearances over the past 12 months, nine once penalties come out. He went 12 straight games without a goal or an assist before scoring against Sunderland on the final day, his worst run at the club, and Thomas Tuchel left him out of England’s World Cup squad. Alonso’s work with Florian Wirtz at Bayer Leverkusen, 74 non-penalty goal involvements in the Bundesliga over that period, is the template Chelsea are betting on.
Joao Pedro scored 23 goals in 53 games in his first Chelsea season and still missed Brazil’s World Cup squad. He has seven in 348 minutes of pre-season football. Tenth place last season means no European football, a maximum of 50 matches, and only the second campaign in 10 years without a continental fixture list. Manchester United gained 29 points last season doing exactly that.
Discover the rest of our Football news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply