Graham
Potter's switch to a back three has provided the platform for Chelsea's
recent improvement but it is a question of personnel too. Wesley Fofana's
return has made a difference.
The centre-back, a £75m signing from Leicester in August, has spent most of
the season on the sidelines due to injury but Thiago Silva's withdrawal
against Tottenham last month saw him thrust back into the side from the
bench. He has started every game since.
Chelsea won the first three of those games, against Leeds, Borussia Dortmund
and Fofana's former club Leicester, and they probably would have won the
fourth, against Everton, had he not been forced off with what Potter termed
"fatigue" in the closing stages.
Everton's equaliser in that 2-2 draw came from precisely the position Fofana
had occupied two minutes earlier, with Trevoh Chalobah, his replacement,
dragged too far wide, and Kalidou Koulibaly left exposed and unable to stop
Ellis Simms amid the disarray.
Koulibaly received heavy criticism for the ease with which he was beaten by
Simms but it is worth noting that, according to Opta, it was the first and
only time he was dribbled past all afternoon. His problem was that Fofana
was no longer there to offer protection.
The 22-year-old subsequently had to be withdrawn from the France squad
having received his first senior international call-up after that game, but
the hope for Chelsea is that he will be fit to face Aston Villa on Saturday.
Recent evidence suggests they will need him.
Over the course of the campaign, including the four appearances he made
before suffering his knee injury in October, Chelsea have a record of six
wins from eight games with Fofana starting, compared to only nine wins from
29 games without him.
His injury problems have been such that he remains something of an unknown
quantity to many Chelsea fans - "you don't know how good this kid is yet,"
quipped the Leicester-supporting Gary Lineker recently - but his importance
is not lost on Potter.
"We've missed Wesley," said the Chelsea manager after Fofana marked his
first start in five months by scoring the only goal in the 1-0 victory over
Leeds at Stamford Bridge earlier this month.
"He brings something different; physicality, he defends big spaces, he
allows us to defend a little higher because he has the pace to recover. In
the box, he can attack the ball well."
Brendan Rodgers, his manager at Leicester, called it "defending forward" in
an interview with Sky Sports and Fofana typifies it.
"It is about anticipation, closing the pitch, sustaining attacks," said
Rodgers. "You can be up there pressing but if [your centre-backs] are sat
back on the halfway line then the pitch is too big."
Fofana enables his team to bring their defensive line forward by being
aggressive when anticipating danger and timing his tackles and interceptions
smartly, while, as mentioned by Potter, also being quick and alert enough to
deal with passes in behind.
There is data to prove it. According to Opta's advanced metrics, Chelsea
have played nearly three meters further up the pitch in the Premier League
games Fofana has started under Potter, their average start distance - which
measures how far upfield a team begin their passing sequences - leaping from
41.7m to 44.3m.
That higher start distance puts them roughly in line with Arsenal and
Manchester City this season and, as with those two sides, it allows Chelsea
to pin their opponents back and dominate them.
Chelsea find that more difficult when Fofana is not there and his ability to
attack the ball is missed too. He has scored twice in only 10 appearances
this season. As well as his towering header against Leeds earlier this
month, there was a low finish in the Champions League game with AC Milan in
October following another set-piece.
At the other end, Chelsea have only conceded three goals in his last 481
minutes on the pitch, and just as important as what he gives them inside the
two boxes is what he offers in between them.
Fofana is a modern centre-back who, to quote Potter, is "brave on the ball",
both in terms of his distribution - he is making more passes in the
opposition half per 90 minutes than any other Chelsea centre-backs this
season - and, crucially, through his ball-carrying.
Chelsea lost something in that regard with Antonio Rudiger's departure to
Real Madrid last summer. The Germany defender's rampaging forward runs had
become a feature of their play.
But Fofana has demonstrated the same capability, albeit on the opposite
side, playing, as he does, on the right, rather than the left of Chelsea's
back three, and the statistics prove it.
According to newly-available tracking data, the Frenchman in fact ranks
fourth of all players in the Premier League this season for carries per 90
minutes, behind only Manchester City duo Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva
and Newcastle's Allan Saint-Maximin.
A deeper look at the data - which defines a carry as a touch event where a
player travels 10 meters or more in possession of the ball - shows he ranks
third for defenders bypassed per 90 minutes through carries (7.8) and sixth
for distance carried per 90 (233m).
His carries give Chelsea an extra dimension when attempting to break down
opposition defences.
Fofana usually drops back into position once he has released the ball
following a carry but on some occasions he continues his run, his presence
high up the pitch giving Chelsea an extra body in attack and enabling them
to catch their opponents by surprise.
There was an example against Crystal Palace earlier in the season.
Fofana is once again immediately on the front foot having received Thiago
Silva's pass, accelerating into the space in front of him and taking two
Palace players out of the game as he drives between Odsonne Edouard and
Wilfried Zaha.
Fofana is immediately on the front foot as he picks up possession
From there, he lays the ball off to Sterling to his right and continues to
charge forward, untracked, giving Chelsea an overload on the left-hand side
of the Crystal Palace box.
This combination with Sterling could be seen in the win over Leeds, too,
with Fofana again carrying the ball forward, as shown below, then playing a
square pass to his team-mate before running into a gap between two defenders
to give the option of a pass in behind.
So, at the same time as allowing Chelsea to change the way they defend,
Fofana gives Potter an additional weapon in attack.
It is just another reason why, despite his limited involvement, the
Frenchman is uniquely important to the Chelsea manager.
It remains to be seen whether he will be available for the visit of Aston
Villa on Saturday. But what is certain is that Chelsea are a different
proposition with Fofana in the team.
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