'Really poor' - Micah Richards points out Chelsea's weakness & stats back his claim
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Micah Richards has criticised Chelsea's defending against crosses this season, and he might have had a fairly good point.
The Blues dropped two points in the home game against Burnley last Saturday, after conceding a late equaliser from a corner kick.
Head coach Liam Rosenior could not hide his frustration after the game, claiming that one of his players failed to execute the assignment and marked the wrong player in the build-up to Burnley's goal.
However, Richards argued that Chelsea's defensive problems do not lie in set-pieces specifically.
"Chelsea's defending from crosses - not only set-pieces, but crosses in general - has been really poor," Richards said on The Rest is Football podcast.
"Having watched the game, a lot of people would say, 'OK, the turning point was the red card,' but actually, Burnley managed the game very well and tried to create opportunities at the right time.
"Soaked up the pressure and then they got the goal from the set-piece."
Chelsea's struggles against headers
Zian Flemming's goal at the weekend was the 12th set-piece goal Chelsea have conceded in the Premier League so far this season.
This puts Chelsea joint-fifth in most goals conceded from set-pieces.
This set-piece defence problem may actually be worse than just that, unfortunately.
According to Opta, Chelsea have conceded more set-piece xG (14.05) than any other team in the Premier League.
It is hard to argue that Chelsea are among the worst in the league in defending set-pieces.
So, how about Richards's claim that Chelsea are struggling against crosses in general?
Chelsea have conceded on average 16 crosses per game in the Premier League. Only Arsenal (12) and Manchester City (14) have had a lower average this season.
That said, it is hard to argue against the claim, as well, since Chelsea have conceded nine goals from headers this season, the joint-third most in the league.
In comparison, Arsenal have conceded four headed goals, while Manchester City have conceded just one so far.
This is likely because while Arsenal and Manchester City have faced only 1.25 and 1.56 headers per game on average (35 and 42 in total), respectively, Chelsea's Robert Sanchez has had to deal with 2.41 headers per game (65 in total).
Gerry Crisandy is a freelance writer who has covered Chelsea for many years. His work has been published on The Chelsea Chronicle and Pride of London. He grew up idolising Michael Ballack and is a firm believer in expected goals.