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Chelsea made sure to establish themselves in the top four of the Premier League with a goalless draw against Leeds United at Elland Road yesterday at lunchtime.
In a game where both defenders came out on top, clear chances were few and far between, meaning that one point was a fair result for both sides.
While it will have been disappointing for Chelsea and head coach Thomas Tuchel to have missed an opportunity to have narrowed the gap with Manchester United in second place to just one point, the Blues remain undefeated with the German, offering encouragement that they can seal a top-four result this season when it seemed increasingly unlikely in the later stages of Frank Lampard’s tenure.
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Chelsea’s renewed prospects of finishing in the top four this season have been built on their solid defensive foundations since the arrival of Tuchel, with the goalless draw at Elland Road securing an eighth clean sheet in all ten Premier League matches that has had the former boss of Paris Saint-Germain. been in charge of.
Although Tuchel chose to slightly tweak his system against Marcelo Bielsa’s side, going from a back-three to a back-four, it was still players like César Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, plus Edouard Mendy behind them, who got another closure. out of.
At the other end of the field, however, consistently scoring goals is still a slightly gray area. In their last five league outings, the Blues have only scored four goals, in addition to not having scored three in a league game since shortly before Christmas.
When you take into account the variety of talent that Chelsea has in the attacking areas, that statistic is concerning. The Blues have players like Mason Mount, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner, Olivier Giroud and Tammy Abraham, although the latter is currently sidelined with an ankle problem, all of whom are capable of causing injury.
Chelsea spent a lot of money last summer in hopes of becoming a scarier unit at the top end of the field, squandering more than a combined £ 150 million on Havertz, Ziyech and Werner.
In truth, none of those three have delivered the goods as much as everyone expected, struggling both to score goals and to create them.
In total, they’ve scored just seven league goals between them, which is truly an alarming statistic. But despite that, Chelsea will take comfort in the fact that both Havertz and Werner’s valuations have risen.
Havertz joined the Blues from Bayer Leverkusen for an initial fee of £ 72 million, while Werner was hired for just under £ 50 million.
Surprisingly, despite his struggles in his first season in England, his ratings, according to data provided by the CIES Football Observatory, have risen.
According to the website’s algorithm, Havertz is currently valued at £ 116.7 million and Werner is priced at £ 115.9 million.
Considering that the pair have not reached the heights expected of them this season, it is massive increases in the fees Chelsea paid for them, suggesting that the pair have the best years of their respective careers to come, although that It may seem surprising given its current form.
Havertz is only 21 years old and Werner recently turned 25, which means they have plenty of time to reach their limits in racing.
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Their respective ratings have placed them in the top 11 of the CIES Football Observatory, ahead of players like Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane.
On top of that, only four other Premier League players are ahead of the Chelsea duo in the standings.
Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford is currently at the top of the table, valued at £ 142.2 million, with Chelsea-linked Erling Haaland breathing down his neck in second place, valued at £ 130.5 million.
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