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As Chelsea sit four points ahead of second-place at the top of the Premier League, and eight ahead of defending champions Manchester City, it seems far easier to list the reasons for that high positioning than it is to actually haul them back.
Most obviously, as Jamie Carragher argued last week, there is the simple fact that the club went out and did what everyone else didn’t: they forensically isolated all the remaining issues with their team and went out and fixed them. That gave Chelsea the abrasively free-scoring Diego Costa, as well as well as the supremely inventive Cesc Fàbregas, which effectively finished the spine of the side.
John Terry has recovered his best form, Thibaut Courtois looks to have reached a level above Petr Cech, while Eden Hazard, Oscar and Nemanja Matic have seemingly entered their prime. The Serbian defensive midfielder’s evolution has been elevated as a fine example of how José Mourinho’s teams always improve in his second season at a club.
The stats of these players have already received wide acclaim, and it certainly seems like the team is coming close to something like completion. Of course, such stars alone do not complete any team, and particularly not one chasing a title - nor a Mourinho team. The Portuguese’s career has partially been so successful precisely because his supporting casts have always been so strong.
FC Porto had Costinha and Nuno Valente, his first Chelsea Damien Duff and Tiago Mendes. Internazionale were built on Thiago Motta and Goran Pandev, while Real Madrid leant on the likes of Álvaro Arbeloa and Fábio Coentrão. The key to all of these players is that they are as dependable as they are durable, setting a high baseline of competitiveness. The notionally weakest link was often teak-tough.
It was a trait Mourinho shared with Alex Ferguson’s last decade as a manager. Manchester United’s most recent titles, especially from 2009 on, almost seemed characterised by a core of solid players who just set a habit of winning. So, how are Mourinho’s current supporting cast performing? How do the likes of César Azpilicueta, Gary Cahill, Branislav Ivanovic, Willian, Ramires and André Schürrle performing?
As can be seen, Ivanovic is offering the kind of stats that should almost make him be considered one of the stars of the team. The fact so many of those figures are attacking - most shots per game for a defender at 1.3, seventh in terms of key passes for a defender at 1.1, sixth most dribbles for a defender at 1.1 - also emphasises something else that the rest of the supporting cast back up. They have typically furthered Chelsea’s move to more expansive football.
Cahill and Azpilicueta, for example, are perhaps some of the purest defenders in the league, let alone at Chelsea. They have been doing less actual defending in comparison to last season, though, and more playing.
Azpilicueta’s tackles per game have fallen from 3.4 to 3, his fouls from 1 to 0.8 and his clearances from 4.8 to 4.2. Cahill’s tackles are down 1.1 to 1, and his interceptions from 1 to 0.9. Most conspicuously, the English centre-half has had to compete for fewer headers, with his aerial wins falling from 3.5 to 2.2
On the other side, Apzilicueta’s brilliant surge for Diego Costa’s winner against Liverpool indicates the transformation there. He is offering more key passes, from 0.4 to 0.7, and is on the ball more, with his average passes per game rising from 41.2 to 44.7. The latter is like that with Cahill, as his average passes rose marginally from 43.7 to 44.3.
Ramires has similarly been required to offer less industry in his more limited appearances, as all of his tackles (2.8 to 1), interceptions (0.8 to 0.2) and fouls (1.8 to 1.5) have fallen. This has been offset by the fact the likes of Schürrle have provided more work. His tackles (1.3 to 1.5) and fouls (0.7 to 0.9) have risen, but his key passes (1 to 0.3), dribbles (0.6 and 0.4) and crosses (0.6 to 0.4) have fallen.
The patterns would appear to indicate that they are more than a supporting cast in name. They are also like that in style. Everything at the back seems to have been tweaked to favour a more expansive match. Everything further forward seems to be to free the stars. The one anomaly so far is Willian, who has dropped in both industry and innovation.
His tackles, fouls and interceptions have all dropped, but so has his attacking output. He is now only offering 0.8 key passes per game rather than 2.6, and 0.5 crosses instead of 1.5. He is also dribbling less.
That is perhaps a slight concern because the back-room staff could reasonably have expected this to be a proper breakthrough season for the Brazilian. It is possible, however, that this is an inevitable slowdown after the exhaustions of the World Cup. It hasn’t slowed down Chelsea’s season.
The supporting cast have begun at the pace intended. That could be key to Chelsea staying where they are.
