Match Week 6 - Recap

EPL Match Week 6 - CleanSheet Recap

In Today’s CleanSheet:

• Headlines 📌

• Current Situation📈📉

• Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- Chelsea

• Off Island 🏝️ - Champions League

• Best Bets 💰

Headlines 📌

• Best Result of Match Week 5. 3-1 Everton over Brentford. Been hard on Everton, and rightly so, as they had only scored 2 goals on the season and looked like they wanted to flirt with relegation for a third straight season. The Bees evened the match at 1-1 but were outplayed in a disappointing home loss. This may be the win Everton needed to kick start their season.

  

  Newcastle Dolphins or Miami Magpies?

• Record Setting Day. Almost. In yet another PL NFL comparison, Newcastle hammers Sheffield United on the road 8-0, falling just short of a record the same day the Miami Dolphins hammer the Denver Broncos on the road 70-20, falling just short of a record. Any coincidence each team's logo has a marine animal in it? More on Newcastle’s win:

  • 8 different players scored for the first time in PL history.

  • 11 teams have yet to score 8 goals for the season, including Man United and Chelsea.

  • This is the second 8-0 win in the PL for Newcastle against a team from Sheffield, beating Sheffield Wednesday 8-0 in 1999.

  • There have only been four bigger victories in the history of the PL

    • 1993 Man United 9-0 home to Ipswich Town

    • 2019 Leicester City 9-0 at Southampton

    • 2021 Man United 9-0 home to Southampton

    • 2022 Liverpool 9-0 home to Bournemouth

• Best Goal Candidate.

  • Man United - Bruno Fernandes for the WIN. (x 15s)

  • Liverpool - Darwin Nunez for the lead (x 15s)

• Biggest Disappointment. Not going to put Chelsea here again, instead will devote the Hot Topics section to Chelsea. Let’s give the award to Sheffield United. I realize The Blades are new to the PL this year, but 8-0 at home? 15-1 shots on goal? That is disappointing. Best 20 second meme of the match week on X.

• Still Winless. 4 teams have yet to win. Bournemouth, Sheffield United, Everton, Luton Town, Burnley.

Current Situation 📈📉

• Rising. Everton, Villa, Newcastle.

• Falling. Chelsea, Sheffield United, Brentford.

Clean Sheets Counter

Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥

Chelsea.

If you’ve been reading the CleanSheet you know Chelsea has spent well over $1B in the last 18 month on players, yet that has not translated into success/wins, yet. So, what is going on with The Blues?

A Quick History (check out this background for a 2 page summary of Chelsea)

Billionaire Russian Oligarchs. Roman Abramovich, a Russian Oligarch worth $13 Billions was the owner of Chelsea from 2003 to 2022. Under his ownership the club won 18 major trophies including the Premier League 5 times, Champions League 2 times and the FA Cup 5 times - making Chelsea the winningest club during that span. He seemed to be a “players owner”, investing in facilities and players.

This success brought out some vocal detractors, in particular around the idea of Sportswashing and the idea of “buying” trophies.

Then in 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and the UK took that opportunity to freeze the assets of Russians in England - including Abramovich. Roman was concerned about the club and announced he would be handing the club over to the Trustees of the Charitable Foundation and he was eventually forced out. The club was sold to Todd Boehly’s BlueCo group for around $5.5B. Here is more detail on the situation.

What does this have to do with the Current Situation?

It’s been roughly 18 months since Boehly’s Group took over - and it’s clear from the very top leadership of the club down to the kit man the club has little continuity, personality or consistency. The only constant has been CHANGE. Here is short example:

• The majority of the players have turned over, 20 new players signed, with high priced individuals entering the club with what seems to be a lack of understanding of their role.

• The manager turnover has been equally disruptive. A month into their 2022 season (early September) Boehly fired manager Thomas Tuchel, now managing Bayern Munich, and hired Graham Potter away from BHA. It was an up and down run leading to Potter being sacked in March 2023 and replaced by interim manager Bruno Saltor, then interim manager Frank Lampard. Chelsea finished 12^th in the PL, well below expectations. Mauricio Pochettino was then hired and is the current manager.

• This club STILL does not have a Shirt sponsor for the 2023 season.

So what is the CleanSheet’s opinion on what is going on with Chelsea?

You can’t just come in and take over a club, get rid of everyone, spend a ton of money on new players and just assume it will all gel. This is a very young team missing leadership. Chelsea is the example of what most sports fans understand: It takes a TEAM, aligned to common goals and values, with clear expectations on roles and responsibilities from ownership, to board oversight, to player recruitment and selection, to player development, to the front office, to the back office, and yes, to the kit man.

Can they turn it around? Yes, but it will take some time. They will get better, they do have talent on paper, and Pochettino has done this before. When Poch took over Spurs in 2015-16 they started with only 6 points in their first 5 matches going winless for the first 4 matches. They went on to finish 3^rd in the PL.

Some quick facts and fan reactions to Chelsea’s current slump.

• If Chelsea does not score in their Wednesday match against Brighton in the English FL Cup, they will have to select their “goal of the month” from a practice. They have not scored a goal in September!

• Erlin Haaland has more PL goals (44) than Chelsea (43) since Haaland joined Man City at the start of the 2022 season.

• Domino’s Pizza UK sent this text - “We’ve delivered about 852,609 pizzas since Chelsea last scored a goal!”

• Chelsea have won only FIVE PL games in all of 2023 - 29 matches total - and those wins are over Palace, Bournemouth, Luton(promoted), Leeds(relegated) and Leicester City(relegated).

• Fan Reaction 1. This pretty much sums it up (X 1 min).

• A good summary - picture (X 5 sec)

Off Island 🏝️

Champions League Update By Group

Next Matches in the CL are October 3/4.

Best Bets 💰

Down a little to start the season, long way to go…..