After the shellacking that the Chelsea squad have suffered in the last three away matches, I thought it interesting to see how goal differentials are looking. Thanks to understat.com, this information is readily available.
I’ve put together a table, or rather a set of tables, showing the minutes break down in each of five Goal Differential states, for both this season to date as well as all of last season. Along with that, there’s a % of the total, for those that don’t to do the math, or look at the pretty colors, and lastly, a table showing change from one season to the next. That last one is in bips, for those unsure of what’s happening there.
The color coding is only for the individual row of the specific table, so it’s shading based on largest versus smallest for that club only. So on the minutes tables it’s not just green = good, but green = most. All right then.
Things I notice when looking over and reviewing this data:
- Chelsea have really done a number those last three matches. First, the early lead given up to Arsenal in a 2-0 loss, then at least sparing the first 45 against Bournemouth in a 4-0 loss, but this last one, at City, going down just minutes in, and then shortly thereafter conceding number two, well that completely dominates this table, at least for Chelsea.
- We are also the worst of the six when it comes to having a multi-goal lead. Dear oh dear.
- However, flipping that “-1” to the “+1” essentially is a big part of why we are doing as well as we are this season. We aren’t having to scrap back into matches nearly enough, which is probably a good thing, as we’d probably not be successful trying.
- Liverpool having not been more than one goal down all season is just remarkable. And only spending just over a match’s length being down all season. Shocking.
- City doing well both last season and this one in terms of minimizing being down is also incredible. And increasing their time with leads is phenomenal too. That 11.32 points drop while tied is massive. Early leads is where that comes from.
- Arsenal spending far less time down a goal, and far more time drawn has been a big boost to their season.
- It remains to be seen if Man United can keep up their run of form, but they are having to pay for a lot of poor play early on.
