Chelsea were blown away by Everton to leave their Champions League hopes in doubt after another difficult night for recently appointed boss Liam Rosenior
The Match of the Day panel were left flabbergasted after discovering Chelsea have covered less distance than their opponents in EVERY Premier League game this season.
The Blues were thumped on Saturday night, losing 3-0 at Everton to condemn them to a fourth successive defeat. Liam Rosenior had already watched his side be thrashed twice by PSG, either side of a loss to Newcastle at home
Saturday was another damaging evening for Chelsea, whose hopes of returning to the Champions League took a major blow.
When analysing the match, pundit Alan Shearer looked at the distance covered of both teams at Hill Dickinson Stadium, with the hosts running 111.85km compared to Chelsea’s 105.79km.
It was then revealed that has been the case for every single one of their top-flight matches this season, with host Mark Chapman and fellow pundit Wayne Rooney similarly astounded.
Shearer explained: “Everton have outrun Chelsea today, but a staggering stat that we found out is: Every Premier League game this season, Chelsea have been outrun by the opposition…every Premier League game!”
Chapman then interjected and said: “And we’ve had that double and triple-checked! Because all three of us thought, ‘Really?!’”
Shearer continued: “In every single game - home and away - Chelsea have played, the opposition have outrun them…what does that tell you?”
Rooney pointed to the fact that Chelsea possess one of the league’s youngest squads and that the constant rotation could be negatively impacting them.
Rooney said: “They’ve got a lot of young players and they are very inexperienced and the team does change quite a bit as well. So I don’t think they’re getting that togetherness on the pitch.
“The more you change the young players, they don’t get a run of games and they don’t compete.”
Chelsea remain two points behind Aston Villa in fourth and one behind Liverpool, who occupy fifth in what will likely be the last spot to secure Champions League qualification.
But the chasing pack have effectively caught up with them, with the likes of Brentford and yesterday’s opponents Everton in touching distance.
Speaking after the game on Merseyside, Rosenior admitted it was the worst of his short reign in charge.
“Yeah, the most disappointing evening so far in terms of the things we've spoken about, not gifting goals away and making sure we're in the game, getting control of the game,” he said.
“It wasn't there and it turned into a really, really difficult evening where the result and performance was nowhere near what we expected or wanted.”