Chelsea bottle another lead, the data shows why Mauricio Pochettino might need to depart

Asking a fan about his preferred scenario about his team’s game by half time and ten out of ten would mention the exact position Chelsea found themselves at half time.

A goal up, and a man down, even the opposition manager being sent off.

It seemed perfect, but Chelsea once again showed their bottling gene, as the game somehow ended 2-2, following a shocking second half performance.

So the question is asked, Who should take the blame this time? The Players for their inexperience and costly mistakes, or the coach for not doing something right?

I’ll begin with touching on some faults I spotted from the game.

One infuriating theme this season has been Chelsea’s inability to see off games and that has mostly been as a result of both the players’ naivety and the coach’s poor game management.

But here against Burnley, it is without a doubt the players fault that Chelsea haven’t recorded a win.

Yes, the team started sluggishly after the half-time team talk (Poch’s fault btw. Wonder what he does during half time breaks?)

Burnley capitalised on this deficiency with a well taken effort from the edge of the box but there is no justification for the second goal which the team conceded.

Data shows Chelsea would be in the relegation zone based off points in second half’s this season.

Another constant theme this season has been our disgracefully-abysmal defending of set-pieces.

It’s been a disgrace watching a team that cost over 500 million of the Queen’s finest pounds to assemble get trodden upon at every single set-piece.

The trepidation I experience whenever we have a set-piece to defend is like I’ve never had up till now.

It used to be close to impossible to physically bully Chelsea during set-pieces but our present crop of players can barely stand up to any physicality the opponents put up during set-pieces.

Here today against Burnley, it was Noni Madueke who lost Darren O’Shea before the Irish man headed towards goal, only for Petrovic who has been reliable till now to fluff his lines and weakly palm the ball into his own net, when he could have just parried O’Shea’s effort over the crossbar.

Little errors like the aforementioned are the difference between challenging for top-4 in the Premier League and battling to get into the top half of the league table.

The team ducking under the slightest pressure has also been embarrassing to watch for Chelsea faithfuls.

A couple instances to help us remember of the team failing under pressure and poor concession of set-pieces; Van Dijk (Carabão cup final), McTominay second goal, goals at Luton Town, first leg at home against City and a lot more.

It could however be argued that despite the players’ average competitor mentality and lackadaisical attitude sometimes (Noni was guilty of this today), a huge chunk of the blame could and should be directed towards the coaching staff led by Mauricio Pochettino also.

Poch shares a huge portion of the blame cause he barely helps the team sometimes with his awful team selections and choice of tactics.

Poch’s in-game management is also another factor as to why we have been poor with keeping leads.

This season, Chelsea has lost 11 points from wining positions with many lucky escapes also (Luton away, Newcastle at home, Fulham at home etc).

The Argentine’s teams are known to be bottlers (especially his Spurs team) and he won’t be having such tag disconnected from him anytime soon if this present Chelsea woe continues.

Up next is a huge game with United visiting the Bridge on Thursday night.

Be sure to witness an even more toxic atmosphere if Chelsea loses that to the Red Devils.