Timo Werner’s (lack of) goals has been an increasingly unavoidable topic of conversation and concern at Chelsea over the past many weeks, but while the personal drought has stretched into career-worst territory, Werner has remained involved in plenty of Chelsea goals.
Case-in-point, Sunday’s 2-1 win over Sheffield United, wherein he provided the assist for Chelsea’s first and won the penalty for Chelsea’s second, which doesn’t actually count as an official assist because reasons. It was Werner’s team-leading 5th assist in the league — only seven players in the entire Premier League have more. And it was his 7th (seventh!) penalty won on the season in all competitions, which is a remarkable statistic in and of itself — and is a club record already. (Chelsea have won 14 penalties this season altogether, scoring 10.)
Timo Werner has now won 7 penalties for @ChelseaFC this season. This is more than any other player has won in a single season for the Blues. #CFC #Chelsea pic.twitter.com/yA5yWB25fC
— Chad (@ChelseaChadder) February 7, 2021
Meanwhile, Werner has also had multiple goals disallowed, had multiple shocking misses when it’s looked easier to score than not, and he leads the Premier League alongside Leandro Trossard and Ollie Watkins with five (5) woodworks hit.
One must imagine that his luck will turn ... eventually. It must, right?
“Overall a good win for us, difficult against a high defending Sheffield United and proud that we continue our last wins. For myself, again there was no goal but it is good to see I can help the team with other things.
“I am happy when we win and with two assists, but as a striker you want to score, it has been a long time and I have not had this long without in my career. The goals will come.”
-Timo Werner; source: Sky via Goal
Tuchel remains just as confident as well, and hasn’t hesitated to keep giving Werner minutes, just as Lampard didn’t before either. Werner has started three in a row and has failed to feature in just two matches all season. (Though it’s actually Mason Mount who leads the team in minutes these days.)
The head coach pointed to Werner’s key contributions in Sunday’s victory as signs of improvement.
“It was a brilliant run for the first goal and it was great decision making for the second goal to go around the goalkeeper. So he got us the decisive penalty again like in Tottenham, it is clear that the situation in Tottenham gave him a confidence boost and he was a bit unlucky with his shot and chances against them.
“It was good defending from their defenders but he worked incredibly hard and disciplined against the ball. It gave him a boost, I feel him stronger and stronger every day. Today he was more free and I could really feel him on the pitch.
“He was absolutely in the game mentally and physically and he was decisive. This is the most important thing because if he can continue like this. The goals will come, for sure.”
-Thomas Tuchel; source: Football.London
Werner was unable to finish the game due to the dead leg he suffered in the penalty-incident with Sheffield United goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale — how’s your head, kid? — and his team-first ethos shined through as he explained why he asked the head coach to make that substitution.
“It was the penalty [that caused it]. A dead leg, I think you call it. The 10-15 minutes after was hard so I told the manager he should take me off because it was a tight game and it is better to have 11 fit players on the pitch than 10-and-a-half.”
-Timo Werner; source: Sky via Evening Standard
Werner’s not expected to miss significant time with the contusion. Hopefully the goals won’t be missing for much longer either. (Even if the assists are nice.)