Two main reasons Chelsea have the worst defensive set piece stats in the Premier League | OneFootball

Chelsea’s attack set piece stats have improved a lot this season, but the opposite has been true of their defensive numbers.

Liam Twomey’s piece for the Athletic about Chelsea today is a deep dive on the Blues’ defensive set pieces woes. It’s been a frustrating issue all year, and one that Liam Rosenior has not been able to easily sort out.

The stats are pretty damning: “only four Premier League teams have conceded more goals from defensive set pieces than Chelsea (11) in 2025-26,” Twomey writes.

“According to Opta, no team in the division has given up more expected goals (xG) when defending dead-ball situations (13.5).”

It’s a strange reversal of their improvement on attacking set pieces.

Chelsea have easy ways to improve set piece struggles

Jamie Redknapp on Alejandro Garnacho’s mistake.

Twomey points to a few reasons for our struggles: for one, we’re far from the biggest and strongest team in the Premier League, which has had quite the arms race in those areas in recent years. A focus on signing technically good players has us top of the xG charts, but suffering defensively. That may be a trade-off we just have to accept, to an extent.

He also drills into the stats further and finds that it’s specifically long throws we’re struggling with. It’s also noted how our give red cards this season have hurt us at set pieces. That should be a much easier one to sort out.

In other news…

Liam Delap has been the focus of a lot of criticism recently, and an exclusive today has claimed he could move on as soon as the summer.

Geovany Quenda is currently at Cobham doing some rehab and getting used to the surroundings as he prepares for a summer move.

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here: