The Debrief: Chelsea’s 2021/22 season so far

The measurement of expected goals, or xG, attempts to improve the shot metric by taking into account where the shot was taken from, the assist for the shot, what body part it was shot with, and further factors, such as the keeper’s positioning, depending on which provider you use.

So rather than simply saying Chelsea had 25 shots and Burnley had five, Opta give an xG value to each shot by cross referencing it with all the shots in their database. Of course, the system is not flawless, but it gives a good indicator of a team’s efficiency in both boxes.

This season, both offensively and defensively, we have considerably outperformed our xG and xGA (expected goals against). In fact, no other team has a higher differential in both departments.