Chelsea 3 Luton Town 0

[asvaberg]

This is not a walk in the Park. They will be all over us. Anyone remember this?

Our lineup was decent, very decent.

Our coach was decent, very decent.

 

[thevelourfog]

28 minutes ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

That's why it has to be a tearing them apart win. 

I agree. I just wouldn't form any strong opinions, positive or negative, about our broader prospects even if we did win big. 

27 minutes ago, asvaberg said:

This is not a walk in the Park. They will be all over us. Anyone remember this?

Our lineup was decent, very decent.

Our coach was decent, very decent.

 

Brentford were much, much better than Luton are tbf. They had a team with a few experienced international players and significantly bigger budget. But yes, we need to be respecting and properly preparing for everyone we play.

[Ham]

Just now, thevelourfog said:

I agree. I just wouldn't form any strong opinions, positive or negative, about our broader prospects even if we did win big. 

Brentford were much, much better than Luton are tbf. They had a team with a few experienced international players and significantly bigger budget. But yes, we need to be respecting and properly preparing for everyone we play.

If I remember rightly, and whilst we had a decent team out, the club was in complete turmoil that week. 

The punditry was all about issues behind the scenes such as Chelsea invading Ukraine. 

[My Blood Is Blue]

Injury updates ahead of tomorrow match:

Benoit Badiashile - at the end stages of his rehabilitation programme

Marcus Bettinelli - continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme

Armando Broja - at the end stages of his rehabilitation programme

Trevoh Chalobah - continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme

Carney Chukwuemeka - recovering well post-surgery and starting rehabilitation

Wesley Fofana - continuing with the early stages of his rehabilitation programme

Reece James - continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme

Mykhailo Mudryk - starting rehabilitation having undergone assessments on an injury sustained in training this week

Christopher Nkunku - continuing with the early stages of his rehabilitation programme

[Miguelito07]

....and another injury. Mudryk. 

[Miguelito07]

1 minute ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Injury updates ahead of tomorrow match:

Benoit Badiashile - at the end stages of his rehabilitation programme

Marcus Bettinelli - continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme

Armando Broja - at the end stages of his rehabilitation programme

Trevoh Chalobah - continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme

Carney Chukwuemeka - recovering well post-surgery and starting rehabilitation

Wesley Fofana - continuing with the early stages of his rehabilitation programme

Reece James - continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme

Mykhailo Mudryk - starting rehabilitation having undergone assessments on an injury sustained in training this week

Christopher Nkunku - continuing with the early stages of his rehabilitation programme

this is ridiculous!

[Sciatika]

This is why we have to Maatsen, as I said before. 

 

[Mark Kelly]

I honestly think that Chalobah is pretending because he doesn't want to be sold this window 

[Holymoly]

So, Mudryk injured now. At least that makes selecting forwards easier. I suggest we look into hiring an exorcist to check out Cobham as this is becoming ridiculous. I also wouldn't rule out Lukaku being responsible for some voodoo shenanigans. Check out his locker for small dolls with pins stuck in them.

[My Blood Is Blue]

I’d start Madueke and bring Maatsen off the bench, personally.

[Mark Kelly]

Hey Sam , can you do a squad list so that we can vote beforehand and pick who we think will go off with a season defining injury in this game ? 

My Money is on Enzo 

[Floyd25]

1 hour ago, Miguelito07 said:

this is ridiculous!

It’s been going on for years now, it’s not a recent issue, it’s too much for there not to be a problem in the club, not sure if it’s with the medical department or what, but it’s a glaring problem. 

[Miguelito07]

2 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

I honestly think that Chalobah is pretending because he doesn't want to be sold this window 

I have seen RECENT training videos and he is in them

[Ham]

1 hour ago, Floyd25 said:

It’s been going on for years now, it’s not a recent issue, it’s too much for there not to be a problem in the club, not sure if it’s with the medical department or what, but it’s a glaring problem. 

57 injuries since the start of last season. 

[Mark Kelly]

8 minutes ago, Ham said:

57 injuries since the start of last season. 

That is an insane stat . There's definitely something we are doing or using or playing on that is effecting our susceptibility to injury 

[My Blood Is Blue]

54 minutes ago, Ham said:

57 injuries since the start of last season. 

This sounds high, but out of interest, how does this compare to other sides, do you know?

[Ham]

1 hour ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

This sounds high, but out of interest, how does this compare to other sides, do you know?

I saw on twitter a while ago that it was miles ahead of second place. Miles ahead. 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Ham

[My Blood Is Blue]

22 minutes ago, Ham said:

I saw on twitter a while ago that it was miles ahead of second place. Miles ahead. 

Yeah, that's what I would guess as well... might do some digging to see just how bad it is!

[My Blood Is Blue]

Here we go, This is just last season but it illustrates your point @Ham! I found it on an article on The Athletic which also says:

Quote

According to the site’s data for the 2022-23 season, Fulham and Wolverhampton Wanderers suffered the fewest individual injuries (19 each) and Chelsea had the most (48).

When it comes to injuries per 1,000 minutes, it was West Ham United, who played 57 games across four competitions due to their triumphant Europa Conference League run, who had the least with just 4.6 injuries per 1,000 minutes played. Fulham and Wolves were tied for next best (4.8) with Arsenal (5.0) and Manchester City (5.2) completing the top five.

At the other end of the spectrum, Chelsea suffered 10.7 injuries per 1,000 minutes. The next-most-afflicted teams were Newcastle (9.4) and Nottingham Forest (9.1).

The number of injuries does not always correlate with player availability, though.

Brentford, for example, suffered the joint-sixth-fewest injuries, yet recorded the sixth-most days and games missed. This is because they had several long-term casualties rather than the sort of knocks that go away quickly. Aaron Hickey missed 93 days (ankle), Kristoffer Ajer 65 (knee), Shandon Baptiste 111 (hip), Pontus Jansson 150 (thigh and hamstring), Christian Norgaard 73 (Achilles) and Frank Onyeka 70 (hamstring), while Keane Lewis-Potter was a spectator for the final 100 days of the season following knee surgery.

Fortunately for them, not many of their key players were out at the exact same time and they were able to finish in the top half of the table.

The teams who play the most games are usually at the most risk of suffering injuries due to short recovery periods.

Manchester City’s hectic schedule at home and in Europe (reaching the FA Cup and Champions League finals) meant they played the second-highest number of minutes — 5,220 across four competitions, compared to Aston Villa and Everton at the opposite end of the spectrum who played just 3,690 after just one FA Cup tie each and two in the Carabao Cup.

Despite this, treble-winners City recorded the fewest days missed (447) and fewest games missed (62) through injury.

Only Manchester United, who got to both domestic cup finals and the Europa League quarter-finals, played more games than City last season (62 to 61) but their numbers were much worse, with their players missing 1,031 days and 133 games — over double the numbers of City in both categories.

City’s availability numbers can be seen in the fact only Kalvin Phillips (shoulder, 68 days), Kyle Walker (hernia, 50), Ruben Dias (hamstring, 40) and Nathan Ake (36, hamstring[s]) were missing for longer than a month. No City player was out for more than a two-month period.

The resources City put into maximising player availability is perhaps not appreciated but they will hope to maintain those 2022-23 numbers, if not better them, with their new Athlete Management System, which is being rolled out for use across the club’s teams next season. It is a way to standardise data capture and The Athletic understands it has been tested by other sides in the City Football Group stable, starting with Lommel of Belgium’s second division in November.

That degree of availability is the benchmark for other teams and Arsenal were not far off it, given Mikel Arteta used only 22 unique starting XIs in the 38 Premier League matches, the fewest in the division. Arsenal were without Emile Smith Rowe and Mohamed Elneny for four months each due to groin and knee injuries, while Reiss Nelson was out for almost two months from August (thigh), but these lengthiest absences did not affect their major players.

Even when Arsenal lost Gabriel Jesus for 100 days after surgery on a knee problem sustained playing for Brazil at the World Cup, Eddie Nketiah was able to step up. But then defenders William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu suffered injuries in a Europa League last-16 game against Sporting Lisbon on March 16 which kept them out for the rest of the season, and their absences proved to be factors in the long-time league leaders’ costly slump in form on the run-in.

As the table above shows, Chelsea’s horrendous numbers put them at the wrong end of the table on every single count.

Chelsea players missed a combined 1,836 days and 216 games, comfortably the most in the league on both counts. An influx of 17 new players across the season’s two transfer windows plus three different managers having spells in charge plus a squad ravaged with long-term injuries and constant muscle problems equalled a recipe for disaster.

According to statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight.com, Chelsea had by far the least consistent starting line-up of all 20 clubs, coming out at just 67.9 per cent in their STABLE metric (Similarity of Teams And Balance of Lineups across Every match). Manchester City were next-lowest, but in their case it was because manager Pep Guardiola was able to rotate so much due to having most of his squad fit and available.

Chelsea used 38 different line-ups in the 38 games, and a large part of that was due to N’Golo Kante (hamstring, 216 days), Armando Broja (knee, 169), Wesley Fofana (knee, 133), Reece James (knee, 115), Ben Chilwell (hamstring, 93), Mason Mount (pelvis, 77), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (calf, 64), Christian Pulisic (knee, 61), Cesar Azpilicueta (concussion, 53) and Thiago Silva (knee, 45) all being out for lengthy periods.

A lot of these were because of various knee issues, which are hard to guard against in football and can be categorised as bad luck. Chelsea had 14 of them in total with Everton a distant second with seven, ahead of several teams who were on four each.

In the modern game, though, with its forensic level of data tracking and injury prevention technology, muscle injuries should be a rare occurrence.

Hamstrings are the most common muscle to be damaged in football due to the high-intensity sprinting involved, and Chelsea came out the worst on this measure, too. Their players suffered 13 hamstring injuries last season, with Leicester City (11), Liverpool and Newcastle United (both 10) the other teams to have had the most.

Newcastle were top for quadriceps (front of the thigh) injuries with four and joint-top with Crystal Palace for calf problems (seven) yet had the second-highest STABLE score behind Arsenal.

They suffered plenty of injuries over the season but crucially kept the defensive base of their team together for more than three-quarters of the fixtures as the long-term absences of Emil Krafth (ACL, 278 days) and Paul Dummett (calf, 94) did not impact the first-choice players.

Further forward, Callum Wilson was out for 40 days in August and September with a hamstring injury, Allan Saint-Maximin for 58 days in September and October with the same issue and Alexander Isak missed 78 days with a damaged quadriceps and then another 31 with a calf problem before Christmas. After coming through that difficult spell, though, Newcastle’s longest injury lay-offs were for fringe players such as Matt Ritchie, Matt Targett, Ryan Fraser, Harrison Ashby, Jamaal Lascelles and Karl Darlow.

Injuries can’t make your season, but they can certainly break it.

Chelsea were a dysfunctional club in just about every way possible last season but the number of their players who had to miss games made it almost impossible to find any sort of fluidity amid the chaos.

Manchester City, however, showed us how valuable having a fully-fit squad can be and how that allows a manager to shuffle his pack to avoid overworking individual players. Without such a clean bill of health, their treble bid would likely have been derailed somewhere along a road that ended in glory in Istanbul.

We pretty much topped all the lists you wouldn't want to top!

[Ham]

12 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Here we go, This is just last season but it illustrates your point @Ham! I found it on an article on The Athletic which also says:

We pretty much topped all the lists you wouldn't want to top!

Yeah that's the graph I saw. Double arsenal's injuries and theirs were universally accepted in the media as the reason for city overtaking them.

[Sleeping Dave]

5 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

Hey Sam , can you do a squad list so that we can vote beforehand and pick who we think will go off with a season defining injury in this game ? 

My Money is on Enzo 

Don’t jinx it Mark! 

[My Blood Is Blue]

59 minutes ago, Ham said:

Yeah that's the graph I saw. Double arsenal's injuries and theirs were universally accepted in the media as the reason for city overtaking them.

Somehow the narrative for our injuries and issues we have also had due to the sudden sale following the club essentially being frozen and unable to operate has always felt like it is "well, they deserve it, it's Chelsea".

[Mark Kelly]

13 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Somehow the narrative for our injuries and issues we have also had due to the sudden sale following the club essentially being frozen and unable to operate has always felt like it is "well, they deserve it, it's Chelsea".

Because the club almost went under and lost players when we were banned from negotiating contracts this has somehow been morphed into the narrative of Chelsea trying to buy football in the media.

Everything is described through the "dumb yank" filter. 

Arsenal who spent a kings ransom last season paying up contracts to get their older players to leave and replacing them with younger more expensive models, have been given a bye in the media, nobody ever mentions the amount of money they burned through to win nothing they're feted across the board as doing it the right way. 

Spurs have played two games in the league this season, a 2-2 draw against Brentford where they were abysmal and lucky to get anything at all out of it and  2-0 victory against the worst United side in forty years and Football 365 wrote an article about how much better they are than us and how Ange-ball was a revelation. 

City never get anything other than praise and a Liverpool side in which Klippety has bought 42 players in his tenure including the most expensive keeper and centre half at the time to barely win anything of note. And not only do they offer them nothing but praise but they never question the absolute guff Klopp comes out with. 

Newcastle, another side doing it the right way despite buying loads. 

Our real issue is we're still here and that's not what they wanted. 

[chara]

2 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Because the club almost went under and lost players when we were banned from negotiating contracts this has somehow been morphed into the narrative of Chelsea trying to buy football in the media.

Everything is described through the "dumb yank" filter. 

Arsenal who spent a kings ransom last season paying up contracts to get their older players to leave and replacing them with younger more expensive models, have been given a bye in the media, nobody ever mentions the amount of money they burned through to win nothing they're feted across the board as doing it the right way. 

Spurs have played two games in the league this season, a 2-2 draw against Brentford where they were abysmal and lucky to get anything at all out of it and  2-0 victory against the worst United side in forty years and Football 365 wrote an article about how much better they are than us and how Ange-ball was a revelation. 

City never get anything other than praise and a Liverpool side in which Klippety has bought 42 players in his tenure including the most expensive keeper and centre half at the time to barely win anything of note. And not only do they offer them nothing but praise but they never question the absolute guff Klopp comes out with. 

Newcastle, another side doing it the right way despite buying loads. 

Our real issue is we're still here and that's not what they wanted. 

Just punishment for invading Ukraine.

Agree of course Mark..remember meaningful analysis has never filled media coffers or re-enforced agendas. 

Willful Buffoonery!

[thevelourfog]

4 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

That is an insane stat . There's definitely something we are doing or using or playing on that is effecting our susceptibility to injury 

I'm starting to doubt that all of these injuries would be classed as injuries elsewhere, the stats are just too unlikely. I'm wondering if lots of these injuries would get a few painkillers and players pushing through elsewhere. That so many players were leaving and didn't want to be here last season makes me suspicious.

Obviously some, many even, are clearly just serious injuries.