Eyebrows were raised and confirmation was quickly sought when Mikel Arteta greeted his arsenal players for the silence of what he said is the best attack by the Premier League in open game 'with a mile'.
Chelsea left the Emirates after a meaningful shot and only eight touches in the penalty area of the Gunners when Arteta stated that he had “a lot of data” to support the theory.
“They can open you, they can run in transition, they have individual quality, you can throw every player in the line of defense, they can combine on both sides, on weaknesses and they also miss a number of major players at the moment,” said Arteta.
And while Chelsea's supporters are more and more tired of the playing style of Enzo Maresca, the expected figures suggest that Arteta was at least partially right – the attack of the season is the attack by Chelsea just running away leaders Liverpool.
Chelsea has an expected goal of 55.9 for the season so far, only improved by the 65 of the Reds, with an expected assists total of 42.9 – again, behind the 47.2 of Liverpool.
But the most important difference is that although the team of Arne Slot performs too much about those guidelines (they have 69 goals and 51 assists), Chelsea are somewhat left with 52 and 40. Only West Ham, Bournemouth, Southampton and Crystal Palace (on an amazing -10.1) follow worse than the expected figures.
Chelsea is also the only club with two players in the top 10 for great opportunities that so far have been missed this season, the third placed Nicolas Jackson with 15 and joint-sevente Cole Palmer on 13.
The absence of both against Arsenal was a massive factor behind the gentle performance of the team and the Dip of Palmer in form has been the leading factor behind a series of only four competition winnings in 13 games that they have changed from title candidates to stick to a Champions League place.
And a deeper dive shows that six of their 10 league games have produced the average expected figures since the turn of the year and contained a terrible returns of 0.5 against Brighton last month, plus 0.4 with the Emirates.
So although Arteta was right that the seasonal data suggests that Chelsea is an attacking force, their strong start masks the recent reality.
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