Chelsea drew at home with Newcastle today in a game where they could have been 3 goals down in 15 minutes, but could also have scored plenty after a second half rally.
The Blues woke up in the latter period of the game and started to really threaten. As has been the case on countless occasions in the last few months, they couldn’t find the net when they really needed to.
Chelsea ended the game with 22 shots, 5 of them on target. That gave them an xG of 2.25. They also had several great opportunities that simply didn’t translate to a shot. Joao Felix, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz and Raheem Sterling were all guilty of bad decision making in the final third too.
Chelsea (2.25) 1-1 (1.83) Newcastle
— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) May 28, 2023
Yet in the end they got just one goal. And even that was an own goal. The Blues’ positive attacking play at times got players into position around the box to cut back, only to find they had nobody to aim for.
Lampard is stuck between playing Havertz, who does some parts of the playing number 9 well, and Felix, who does others. Neither is a full package however, and until a dominant penalty box player is found, this team are not getting back into Europe.
That can be sorted out in the summer – but we’ve swung and missed on a few forwards now and we know all too well that nobody is a sure thing.
