Premier League: Chelsea vs Bournemouth! With 7 key players injured, why am I still looking forward to Chelsea?

Our first Premier League match to discuss today: Chelsea vs Bournemouth!

No Kante, no Ziyech, no Chick, no 7252... Chelsea is missing at least 7 key players today.

Compared to before the break, Chelsea still lacks this and that, making it difficult to attract fans’ interest.

But don’t forget, Bournemouth also has significant injury problems.

Bournemouth has many injured players, including 5 starters, which will have a considerable impact. Xiao Jiu made a picture for everyone to see.

The absence of these 5 players will affect tonight’s match in two ways:

The first, less obvious impact, is the decline in the goalkeeper’s ability.

Recently, Bournemouth has been using goalkeeper Travers, who was their main keeper when they finished second in the Championship last season and was excellent at that level.

But in the Premier League, his level is insufficient. In 8 appearances, he faced 43 shots on target but only made 21 saves, with a save rate of just 48.8%!

Currently, the Premier League’s lowest save rate among starting goalkeepers is Southampton’s Bazunu, who still has 55.9%!

That’s why Travers has been relegated to the bench.

And how high is Neto’s save rate, who replaced him as the starter? 83.9%! That’s the highest among all main Premier League goalkeepers.

Neto is not available tonight, so the goalkeeper position is a risk.

The second, more obvious impact, is Bournemouth’s reduced ability to build play from the back.

Lealma is the core of their passing and has the most passes in the team.

Assist leader Tavernier and captain Kelly also take on many distribution duties.

With all these players absent, their ability to play out from the back will definitely weaken.

Bournemouth’s ability to build play has always been very poor, and when facing teams that press high, their results are always miserable.

The following chart shows the top five Premier League teams by PPDA value; the smaller the number, the stronger the pressing intensity.

You can see how badly Bournemouth suffered against Liverpool and Arsenal. Of course, some might say those are strong teams.

But Leeds United isn’t a strong team, right? Yet they still scored 4 against Bournemouth.

Watch the match highlights, Bournemouth got robbed badly, and that penalty for Leeds came directly from a high press steal leading to a counterattack.

So, with such a decline in their build-up ability and facing Chelsea, the second strongest pressing team in the Premier League... fans might be quite worried.

Yes, Chelsea’s recent form has indeed been poor.

Actually, in September and October, when Potter first took charge, the results were pretty good. They even had a 5-game winning streak and kept a clean sheet in 5 consecutive matches.

But the schedule in October and November was the most congested in Chelsea’s history, which inevitably led to more injuries due to Potter’s high-intensity style, almost losing a key player after every game.

In the heavy defeat to Brighton, Chelsea couldn’t even find a wing-back, forcing Sterling and Pulisic to play out of position as full-backs.

In a three-center-back formation, the two wing-backs are very important, yet Chelsea couldn’t even find a substitute wing-back? How could they play that match?

Although injuries are still numerous today, many players will appear in unusual positions.

But at least they have had enough training time to fully adapt.

Unlike before, with two or three games per week, where injured players had to play through pain without time to adjust.

Moreover, they will have sufficient stamina to press throughout the entire match.

If they want to qualify for the Champions League, the next two matches against lower-ranked teams are crucial. If they don’t get full 6 points, their chances for a top-four finish are basically gone.

For Bournemouth, the next game against Crystal Palace might be the real relegation battle, so the motivation levels could differ.

So, considering all factors, what do you think—can Chelsea satisfy their fans? Xiao Jiu expects them to win by at least two goals.

Alright, for today’s other matches, Xiao Jiu will send text analysis to everyone in the evening. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask me. “Watch football clearly,” see you then!

If you like it, please tap to follow and like.