During the Premier League reign of Graham Potter at Brighton, the Seagulls were known for playing attractive, free-flowing football with very little end product, and as such, were affectionately known by fellow top-flight fans as ‘xG FC’.
Fast-forward to this very moment in time, Potter’s unfortunate ‘curse’, as it has been coined, is now haunting him in West London.
Since making the switch from the South Coast to the capital, what looked set to mark the beginning of a new era at Chelsea under new ownership and new management has quickly turned into a nightmare scenario.
Despite making the worst start to management by any Chelsea boss in the last 30 years with a sour 38% win rate, nobody at Stamford Bridge appears to be panicking. In previous years under the ruthless ownership of Roman Abramovich, Potter would have vacated the hot seat by now and made his way through the revolving managerial door for another custodian.
However, heavy squad investment since Todd Boehly‘s arrival, the like of which football has never seen before, has masked the ugly truth of Potter’s reign up to this point.
The Blues, for all their commendable defensive work this season (fourth best in the league), have struggled for goals. The winter acquisitions of Joao Felix, Mykhailo Mudryk and Noni Madueke have highlighted their intent to flip their fortune in front of goal on its ahead, but with just 23 goals in 22 games and four goals in nine games since the start of January, it is grim reading for Blues fans.
Perhaps a more pertinent stat that highlights the expected goals ‘curse’ stalking Graham Potter, is the fact that in Chelsea’s last 13 matches, they have had an xG of 16.35 and only managed to find the next on six occasions.
Chelsea have scored 6 goals from 16.35(xG) in their last 13 matches.
The curse is real. pic.twitter.com/YdbsOqrJr4
— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) February 17, 2023
Perhaps Chelsea are the Premier League’s latest iteration of ‘xG FC’, but they will need to begin finding the net and fast if they are to justify the paunchy spending figure throughout the last two windows, beginning with relegation-threatened Southampton this weekend.
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