How to invest in the Chelsea defence

With the new season upon us we take a look at who to pick from the Chelsea defence and why. We will use underlying stats, systems and price to decide who should take a place in our FPL teams.

With 11 prices released for every Premier League club FPL managers are starting to consider their top picks. With Reece James and Ben Chilwell priced at £6.0m they, along with the other Chelsea defenders will be popular picks. We take a look at the Chelsea defence ahead of the new season and you can see last seasons underlying data here for defenders.

The Chelsea defence last season

Chelsea were arguably the third best defence in the Premier league last season, an early indicator in why FPL managers should invest. To back this up, last season Chelsea were the 3rd best team for:

Goals conceded (33)

Clean sheets (16)

Shots on target conceded (115)

Headed attempts conceded (55)

Goal attempts from set plays conceded (100)

The Chelsea system

Tuchel has switched between a back three and back four all season and Chelsea are recruiting wingers which could be bad news for the back three. Chelsea used wing backs to their advantage last season and were one of the best in the league for it.

Wing backs were vital to the team defensively and offensively but could that change? If Chelsea stick with the back three then their wingbacks become an absolute must especially in periods of easier fixtures. If Tuchel does change to a back four then players like Chilwell and Reece James could become far less attacking. This is why Chelsea could potentially just be a team to monitor early on in terms of system.

Goalkeeper – Mendy £5.0m

Mendy coming in at £5m was quite the shockwave within the FPL community. Having a top four goalkeeper at anything below £5.5m is something we should highlight straight away. Although the Chelsea goalkeeper scraped the top 10 highest FPL scoring keepers last season it seems very hard to avoid a Chelsea first team goalkeeper at such a low price.

Mendy and another Chelsea defender could be a very common combination to start the season with.

Centre-backs

With Rudiger now officially a Real Madrid player and Christensen also close to a move to Barcelona the Chelsea central backline is in disarray. This makes it very tough to highlight any particular centre-back when Chelsea are heavily rumoured to be looking for two new ones. However there is one man that stands out, before we see who its important to note that last season Chelsea were:

6th for shots taken from set plays

6th for goals direct from corners

3rd for attempts from crossed corners

3rd for corners taken

The stats above could potentially indicate that the Chelsea centre backs tend to do well and are up there with some of the best teams in the league for getting balls into the box so their centre backs can get forward.

Thiago Silva – £5.5m

An absolute rock at the back for Chelsea last season, playing most matches and a large factor in how Chelsea kept so many clean sheets. Already the attraction is there in terms of Thiago Silva being a good FPL asset this season with the clean sheets. However how does the Brazilian fair going forward?

Thiago Silva:

Was in the top 15 defenders for points returned last season with 130.

Was in the top 10 for goals scored amongst defender.

However other than that the underlying stats were very underwhelming. Although the clean sheet potential is there offensively there are better Chelsea options.

Chelsea wing-backs

We have already mentioned briefly how important wing-backs are to the way Chelsea attack. Amongst defenders the Chelsea wing-backs were in the top four for:

Final third passes

Crosses

Chances created

Big chances created

Goal attempts

Non penalty expected goal involvement

Already you can see the vast potential in buying a Chelsea wingback for your FPL teams.

Ben Chilwell – £6.0m

After a devastating injury last season Ben Chilwell missed the majority of the season but he did not go out without a bang.

In the six matches Chilwell did play he managed to return 55 points. The 55 points he returned meant an average of 9.1 points per match, incredible form even if it was over just six matches. Per 90 minutes amongst defenders Chilwell was 1st for goals scored, 2nd for goal attempts behind Cancelo and 1st for shots inside the box.

Six matches is not a large amount of matches to draw data from but its still hugely impressive. The wingback could be a fantastic edition to your FPL teams now that he’s back and fresh for the new season. He does however have stiff competition.

Reece James – £6.0m

Although Reece James had injury issues of his own multiple times through the season when he was fit he was lethal and a fantastic FPL asset. Taking a look at some of his stats amongst defenders James was:

4th for chances created with 48

Joint 2nd for big chances created with Robertson

3rd for actual assists with nine

Joint 1st for goals scored with five

5th for goal attempts

Its important to note that James only started 22 matches last season whilst Trent started 32 matches and Robertson 29 matches. This shows that although Reece James has played much less game time than two of the best attacking defenders in the league his attacking output has been better or equal in some key attacking data points. With this in mind Reece James shows huge potential offensively and has to be considered.

Summary

James and Chilwell are quite hard to compare because there is a vast difference in game time so the data is tough to conclude in a fair way. What can be said is that both make fantastic options in FPL teams.

James’ form in 2021/22 means he is the best option in the Chelsea defence. However, Chilwell should definitely be considered and monitored early in the season, even more so after just recovering from a big injury.

Thinking of investing in Chelsea? Here we assess what to expect from the blues in 2022/23.