Chelsea 2019-20 Statistical Dashboard, Matchweek 4: Still Too Early to Tell

There’s a line from Don Quixote (depending on the translation) that reads:

“The proof of the pudding is in the tasting. By a small sample we may judge of the whole piece.”

This might be misinterpreted to mean that via a small sample of data we can then project the future results. But that’s not the case. The saying actually means quite the opposite, in fact. It’s demanding that we wait until the “pudding” is finished, and THEN we can taste it and determine if it’s done and done well.

I mention this because we have a very small sample set so far, just four matchweeks, so it’s tempting to derive a variety of conclusions from this, but in reality the best perspective I feel is to simply look directionally. Meaning, are things trending the way we want them to, or do we feel that some course corrections are due? Obviously we can’t make those corrections, this isn’t our business, we are just the supporters here, but we can still form opinions.

Directionally, what I’m seeing so far is:

• We are aggressive with the ball, shooting more, but also conceding possession more
• We are aggressive without the ball, with our defensive metrics all looking well, but conceding goals even so

From everything we’ve been told by Frank Lampard so far, the goal was to be aggressive, to attack, to press, and it feels like “directionally” we are heading the proper way, yet aren’t quite the finished product yet, which is to be expected, with young players and a “young” manager.

There are also players that look better or worse at the moment, but again, small sample sets, and missing veteran players can change that perspective entirely. I’d say we probably need to wait until about matchweek 10 to really start forming proper opinions that imply changes needing to occur.

In any case, here’s the update on the Dashboard:

And here’s the Tableau link:

https://public.tableau.com/profile/robertnhanson#!/vizhome/ChelseaDashboard2019-20/Chelsea2019-20Dashboard

Oh, and if you want to read a rather interesting philosophical paper on that quote, here you go:

https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~morourke/research/Pudding-NWC%207-04.htm