It’s always nice to pick a win on the opening day and even more so I’m a bit of stats geek, so whenever Chelsea goes at it, or any Premier League club for that matter, I’m always attentive to Optajoe’s page on twitter.
Seriously, credit to Opta for delivering these stats, here’s a look at some of the interesting ones they dug up before during and after our game against Burnely:
Before the Game:
Jose Mourinho has seen Chelsea win on all five opening weekends that he has been manager.
Emphasis on one of my previous articles regarding The Special One, victories over Man.Utd (2004), Wigan (2005), Man.City (2006), Birmingham (2007), Hull City (2013) has seen him take all 3 points on opening day.
Cesc Fabregas registered 70 PL assists between August 2004 and May 2011, the same number as Frank Lampard in that time.
Incredible to be honest, how both players had the same number of assists at that particular time despite being in different sides of London.
Cesc Fabregas has scored in both of his Premier League appearances against Burnley.
Apparently Cesc always puts in a performance against Burnley; he didn’t fail to live up to expectations against them.
Chelsea is unbeaten since 1998-99 in their opening PL game of the season, winning 13 of 15 matches.
Not bad, we haven’t lost an opening game in the millennium, how about that?
During the Game:
Chelsea has kept only two clean sheets in their last eight Premier League away games.
A poor stat that we have to improve on, we need to keep those goals away on the road.
It took Chelsea’s strikers until New Year’s Day to score a PL goal away from home last season.
Until Fernando Torres scored in a 3-0 victory over Southampton at the St. Mary’s Stadium midway into the season, no Chelsea striker had scored away from home, a terrible stat Diego Costa has come to rectify.
Cesc Fabregas has assisted a goal in each of his last three appearances in the Premier League.
Fabregas was always known for his ability to create chances for Arsenal and has still got it after that Man of the Match performance against Burnley.
Three days into the season and two goals (Ki v Man Utd & Schürrle vs Burnley) have seen longer passing moves than any 13-14 strikes.
An impressive team goal from the Blues; Hazard, Ivanovic, Fabregas all having a part to play in the final stages before Schürrle finished calmly.
Chelsea has picked up three yellows for simulation since the start of last season, only Man Utd (4) have more.
Branislav Ivanovic now has 17 Premier League goals, as many as Dan Petrescu and Frank Leboeuf managed for Chelsea.
Chelsea has scored 3+ goals before half-time in a PL away game for the first time since October 2011 (4-0 up at HT v Bolton).
Finally, after the Game:
Eight of Chelsea’s 11 shots vs Burnley came in the opening 36 minutes.
Once again, credit to Opta for the stats, hope we keep improving on them, Up the Blues!
