By OkayGoal
Chelsea are struggling to show they’ve improved much at all since the summer, with another defeat received at the weekend.
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Chelsea were beaten by Sunderland on Sunday, and more worrying in a way than the defeat was the performance.
On the London is Blue podcast this week, presenter Nick Verlaney put it very well. Looking at the stats from the game, it’s clear that this was no fluke. Chelsea didn’t create nearly enough.
“69% possession. We had one big chance. They had four big chances. We had ten total shots, we made their keeper save the ball four times, but there was only one good save our of those four,” Verlaney pointed out.
“It simply did not rise to the level of where we expect this team to be at this point of time in the season. It is November, there have been breaks in the schedule. There’s about to be another break right after this, going into yet another international break on a loss, we did that after Brentford last time.”
“I’m having a lot of trouble understanding where we are right now,” he concluded.
🗣️ @nickverlaney: They imply did not rise to the level of where we expect this team to be at this point in the season. It is November. There have been breaks in the schedule. There is about to be another one. I’m having a lot of trouble understanding where we are right now. pic.twitter.com/5JDFFyWQRo
— London Is Blue Podcast ⭐️⭐️ (@LondonBluePod) November 9, 2026
Chelsea fans puzzled by lack of progress
That seems to be the prevailing feeling, ten games into the Xabi Alonso reign. We’re not terrible, but we’re not that good, and most importantly we don’t seem to be getting much better.
In other news…
Mike Penders has spoken out after Chelsea’s defeat and tried to point to some positives.
The midfield was also solid in the game, but they were let down by more soft defending behind them and more blunt attacking ahead of them.
Joao Pedro’s absence is absolutely killing Chelsea right now, and the plain win/loss stats are showing that more starkly than anything.