The true scale of Chelsea’s forward woes laid bare for all to see

Paul Okey
27 January 2022

Stats show that Blues attackers have the worst output based on their share of goals in the whole of the Premier League.

Romelu Lukaku's struggles have been well documented this season with the striker reportedly unhappy at Chelsea amid a run of just five goals in 16 Premier League appearances.

His barren spell in front of goal follows hot on the heels of Timo Werner who only scored six in his debut season at Stamford Bridge.

And with Werner having added just one to his tally this campaign, it has fallen to the Blues' midfield and defence to bail them out.

Of the 48 goals scored by Thomas Tuchel's side this season, a division-high 31.3% have come from defenders, with 25 (53.2%) having been supplied by the midfield - Mason Mount leading the way with seven.

Only seven goals have come from their attacking players, which at 14.9% of their total output forms the lowest percentage across the division.

It is a a drop of just over 15% from 2020/21 when Tammy Abraham (6) and Olivier Giroud (4) provided more than half of their goals from attackers.

Thankfully for Tuchel, while he lacks for goals from attack, he is not short of goalscorers, with 16 players having registered at least one goal for Chelsea this season, the joint-most in the division alongside Manchester City.

Liverpool boast 15 different scorers but it is in attack where the bulk of theirs come, with Mohamed Salah (16), Diogo Jota (10) and Sadio Mane (8) leading the way.

However, despite their forward line providing 72.4% of their 68 goals for the season, they are not the Premier League team most reliant on their forward line. That accolade goes to Watford for whom 21 of their 23 goals - a massive 91.3 percent - have come from their attacking options.

Conversely, Watford are one of only two teams in the league who have not scored a goal through one of their defenders. And when you consider their defenders haven't been able to keep a clean sheet yet this season either, you have to wonder just what they are in the side for.

The only other top-flight team yet to register a goal through a defender is, surprisingly, Manchester United. And despite the perceived threat posed by Harry Maguire, the Red Devils defence only contributed 8% of their 73 goals last term (Maguire with two of the six).

Harry Maguire Goal in case you missed it, taken like a centre forward 💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/cX8XusLAwn
— jaymie (@slabheadutd_) March 31, 2021

Leaders Manchester City, meanwhile, have seen the bulk of their 55 goals come from midfield. Twenty-eight (51%) have been scored from their plethora of midfield options, with Bernardo Silva leading the way with seven. Not surprising, since their 2020/21 title-winning season saw fellow midfielder Ilkay Gundogan lead the goalscoring charts with 13.

And while the teams fighting out for the title have no shortage of goalscoring options in their ranks, those at the bottom are not so lucky.

Rock-bottom Burnley have only had seven players on the scoresheet for them this season, one of whom has since upped sticks for Newcastle, while Norwich and Watford have only had six different players find the net for them.