Chelsea’s 8-pass misfire player looked like the new Madueke

Chelsea started the week brilliantly with victory over Turf Moor, but are they starting to build momentum?

The Blues simply proved too good for Burnley at lunchtime on Saturday, with Pedro Neto heading home Jamie Gittens’ cross just before half-time and Enzo Fernandes slotting home the deciding second goal for a 2-0 win.

The match was much more comfortable than the scoreline suggested, with the Clarets creating only one big chance, amassing a dismal 0.44 xG and rarely threatening Robert Sanchez’s goal.

This is Enzo Maresca’s side’s third consecutive win in the Premier League, having won five of their last six league games. We have a huge week ahead of us, with both Barcelona and Arsenal visiting Stamford Bridge over the next eight days.

Despite the win in Lancashire, several Chelsea players came under criticism, with one in particular being compared to a player who departed for pastures new during the summer.

Why Chelsea sold Noni Madueke

In one of the surprise moves of last summer, although this is a well-trodden path at this point, Noni Maduke left Chelsea during the Club World Cup to sign for Arsenal for an estimated transfer fee of £52 million.

Last season, the England international scored 11 goals in all competitions for the Blues, including seven in the Premier League, a record bettered only by talisman Cole Palmer and another parachute, Nicholas Jackson.

So while it was certainly a surprise that Chelsea decided to sell Madueke, it has been their business model since Clearlake Capital bought the club and Todd Boley and the other owners, who signed Madueke from PSV Eindhoven in January 2023 for £28.5m, simply see it as a quick profit.

Nevertheless, on the pitch, it could be argued that Maresca’s side miss Madueke’s direct running and pace, even though he has not featured for Arsenal since September due to a knee injury.

That said, a frequent criticism from Chelsea supporters of Maduke was that he was selfish and often went for goals when passing to a teammate would be a better option.

Now, confirming this zeitgeist, Maduke attempted 80 shots last season, second only to Palmer in the Premier League, but finished with the lowest goals tally of any player in the Blues squad, finishing with -2.6.

During that time, he registered just three assists and created just six big chances, suggesting that perhaps the views of the supporters, and Martin Keown, were not all that inaccurate.

So which current member of Chelsea’s front line displayed a similar level of selfishness at Turf Moor?

Chelsea’s Maduke recreates at Turf Moor

Since the days of Didier Drogba, it feels like Chelsea are forever searching for a reliable centre-forward. They even signed Romelu Lukaku twice to solve this problem.

The team had a lot of faith in Liam Delap after freezing Jackson out this summer, as mentioned above, and it wasn’t ideal for him to then miss six consecutive Premier League games with a hamstring injury, and then miss another one after receiving a red card in the EFL Cup game against Molineux on the day of his return.

Delap has now started the last two Premier League games over the international break, but is yet to score since scoring against Esperance Sportive de Tunis in the Club World Cup, but Saturday’s performance was not met with rave reviews, and the numbers confirm why.

As noted in the table, Delap had no significant impact on the afternoon’s proceedings at Turf Moor.

He attempted zero dribbles, completed just eight passes and won just two of his eight duels, while touching the ball just 20 times in 67 minutes on the pitch, 28 fewer than goalkeeper Roberto Sanchez and just one more than his replacement Maro Gusto.

Simon Johnson of The Athletic noted that “It’s clear that Delap is still not up to speed after his hamstring injury,” but as The Guardian’s Taha Hashim pointed out, there were times when Delap was unable to play the ball to his teammates after taking the lead.

Given Chelsea’s wide range of attacking options, if Delap were a centre-forward, one of his key responsibilities would be to facilitate the attack, link up with his teammates and, of course, score goals, neither of which he is doing at the moment.

You can bet that Delap won’t be on the team for long if he continues to be incompetent and self-centered. That’s because Boley will likely only get three other players at his position in January.