Chelsea were beaten 1-0 by Valencia last night in the first round group stages of the Champions League.
Frank Lampard’s team failed to breakdown a well drilled defensive unit that carried threats of their own.
Looking at the statistics from the night, as provided by the Chelsea website, the match was all about fine margins and Lampard’s side should have certainly got a much better result.
Chelsea enjoyed the majority of possession (59.1%) and also took 14 more shots (22) at goal than the visitors did (8).
Valencia only managed 2 shots on target, one being the decisive goal, whilst Chelsea had 6, but obviously didn’t convert any of them.
The Blues had 90% overall pass success rate, completing 537 passes of 600 attempted.
Willian was Chelsea’s biggest attacking threat and he made the most amount of dribbles, completing 9. Mateo Kovacic was next completing 2 dribbles.
This shows me that the creative threat wasn’t good enough with no other players attempting to take the bull by the horns.
Chelsea were also dominant in the air, winning 21 of their aerial battles, Valencia only won 12.
It was a day to forget, but one that should have been very different for Chelsea.
