“Very precarious” – Pundit worried about reality behind Chelsea’s clean sheet stats as big tests arrive | OneFootball

Chelsea drew 0-0 with Brentford yesterday, and while the dire attacking play got a lot of criticism, the flip side of that was the praise being given out for their defensive run in recent games.

Clean sheets are piling up, but as CFC Central pointed out on the London is Blue podcast, it’s a little more complicated than that:

“We’ve conceded two goals in the last seven games, but those sides have been bottom of the league Southampton, Copenhagen twice, Leicester City in the relegation zone, Arsenal without two strikers and Bukayo Saka, and Tottenham in 16th,” he explained. He didn’t even mention Brentford yesterday, who are not exactly free scoring.

“So am I supposed to be happy about this or not, I genuinely don’t know. But I do feel that the rest of the sides we have to play now [will test us] – Fulham just beat Liverpool, you’ve got Nottingham Forest, you’ve got Liverpool. Before next week we could be in 6th and Newcastle could be just behind us with a point in hand. So I do see it as a very precarious position.”

You can see his comments in the clip embedded here:

Are Chelsea an unlucky good team or a lucky bad team?

Chelsea’s player ratings from Brentford draw.

That sums up most people’s feelings about the team right now – we’re not sure if we’re pretty good and have just been hit by some badly timed injuries since January, or if we’re pretty bad and have just been lucky with the fixtures.

One thing is for sure – we will know with a lot more certainty by the end of this run of games which of those is closer to the truth.

Still, this week we’ve got Legia Warsaw and Ipswich Town – two chances to pick up more clean sheets.