Chelsea have a new addition to our squad in the shape of Ben Chilwell but he is already well-known to watchers of the Premier League and the England national team, and was a major rival last season when Leicester’s Foxes ran the Blues close for a top-four finish.
His numbers therefore make interesting reading and comparisons so as part of our welcome to the left-back, we pick out some of his standout data from last season.
Ben Chilwell’s headline stats for 2019/20
In the Premier League, the England international made 27 appearances for Leicester who having been second or third for a long spell during the season, finished fifth, four points behind his new club.All of Chilwell’s games were from the start. He scored three goals.
In the two domestic cups, Brendan Rodgers selected him for three 90-minute performances in each of the competitions. Included in those was the FA Cup quarter-final meeting with Chelsea, a 1-0 win for Frank Lampard’s side. In the previous round Leicester had beaten Birmingham, pictured at the top.
A better day for Chilwell came in our February Premier League meeting at the King Power, a 2-2 draw in which Chilwell put his side ahead before Toni Rudiger’s second goal equalised.
His heatmap for that match shows him getting into our penalty area on occasions, from where he scored having been involved three times earlier in the move.
Ben Chilwell's goals in 2019/20
That was one of three goals the 23-year-old scored last season, the others being the opener in their famous 9-0 thrashing of Southampton on the South Coast in October, and then in his game back after the lockdown, an outstanding striker late strike in a draw with Watford that earned a Premier League Goal of the Month nomination.
Among the Premier League’s full-backs, Chilwell scored the second most goals last season with the second-most goals per minute.
Ben Chilwell's stats rankings
There is no doubt he had an impressive campaign for the Foxes, and we have picked out a few of the areas of the game in which he excelled.Looking at OPTA’s stats for all the players in 2019/20 who played at least 1000 Premier League minutes at either full-back or wing-back on either side of the pitch, Chilwell ranked sixth for goalscoring chances created in open play. He average 1.13 chances per match. It is a category in which Cesar Azpilicueta also excelled in 2019/20.When it comes to ‘expected assists’, OPTA’s measure of whether a pass was likely to have led to a goal regardless of whether the chance was taken or not, he came in eighth among full-backs and wing-backs.
He has the same high ranking for both aerial success (winning 61 per cent of his aerial duels) and for passes per 90 minutes, showing a high involvement in build-up play. He averages 64 passes per match.
Read: Ben Chilwell's first Chelsea interview