Two shocking stats which show Chelsea’s attacking collapse since Christmas | OneFootball

There was a lot to hate from Chelsea’s game against Legia tonight, but forgetting the game itself, there were some really worrying individual statistics produced from the game.

We absolutely hated the decision to play Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson in this game, as we made clear beforehand. Our focus should be on keeping them fresh for a huge game on Sunday, not using them here. The logic was presumably to get them a goal and restore some confidence, but that ignores the opposite outcome, which was what we ended up getting.

Neither scored, extending their respective runs without a goal. As the BBC’s Nizaar Kinsella noted:

“Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer were substituted without scoring. It means that Jackson is now without a goal in 12 matches and Palmer has gone 15 without scoring in all competitions.”

Palmer’s drastic loss of form has been headline news for a while now. The long injury to Jackson from January slightly distracted from the fact that he had had a long spell without scoring before he was hurt – and he’s yet to find the net since coming back.

Tactics and individual form share blame for shocking attacking form

Nicolas Jackson battle for possession against Tottenham. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Marc Cucurella scored his 6th goal of the season instead, making him our top scorer since mid-December. That’s great news for the Spaniard, who continues to save us with his goals all the time. But it’s absolutely damning both for the individual form of some of these players, and also for the tactics Maresca is employing.

We won’t blame it all on him, as Palmer particularly is desperately low on confidence. But it’s also undeniable that Maresca is not getting as much out of him as Mauricio Pochettino was, either in goals or just general play.