Chelsea Specials - Alex Keble assesses the team's struggles under the gaffer Pochetino

A reflection of the match against Bournemouth which ended in 0-0 draw wouldn't often cause a club to do much self-reflection but for Chelsea, where crisis and collapse have become typical since Todd Boehly's employing people, it was an all-too-early reminder of what may go wrong. Following the 1-0 home loss to Nottingham Forest before the international break, Chelsea's second consecutive blank brought back memories of how their last full-time boss Graham Potter saw things go horribly wrong: plenty of imagination, but nothing truly flowing -- and no goals. It puts Mauricio Pochettino in a challenging position before Sunday's match at Stamford Bridge against Aston Villa. If they drop that, Chelsea will need to defeat Fulham and Burnley away from home in consecutive games before a challenging stretch of games until early December.

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The results in recent Chelsea games which puts the gaffer into unnecessary pressure has to improve against Aston Villa if he wants to keep his job in the coming days having loss and draw the games he is supposed to have won already. And with difficult draw coming thick and fast in the coming month, the team need to get together to create some form of togetherness and start bringing in the results or else the fan soon start calling for Pochetino's job to be terminated as they are used to the Abramovic way of getting the job done.

Back in the days of Graham Potter was in charge, Chelsea is unable to score goals. They have only scored five goals despite having the fifth-highest Expected Goals (xG) in the division (10.3). In fact, no team has underperformed against their xG more so than Everton. Only four clubs have scored less goals than Chelsea this season, and three of those are currently in the relegation zone. Chelsea's record of five goals from five games this season is their fewest since 1995/96, a season in which they finished 11th. Even so, it is preferable to take chances than to not take any at all. Chelsea is tied for fourth in the standings with Liverpool with 80 shots, one more than Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, and Brighton.

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However, their conversion rate of 6.2% is the third-worst, trailing only Luton Town (4.7%) and Everton (3.0%). With only one goal from an xG of 3.3, Nicolas Jackson stands out as an example of this profligacy. Erling Haaland of Man City, at 5.6, has a higher non-penalty xG but also fails to convert six of his seven significant opportunities. It makes sense if Jackson takes some time to adjust. After all, he has only played in one senior season of top-flight football, at Villarreal.

Chelsea ranks third this year in through-balls played (16), which is likely because Pochettino like his team to play quick, vertical game through the lines. In the first three games of the season, they averaged 4.3 per game, but in the final two, when Bournemouth and Forest both limited behind-the-back space, they only averaged 1.5 per game. The perfect opponent for Chelsea to rebound against might be Villa. The most through balls have been played against Unai Emery's team this year (19), and they also gave up the most through balls last year (95), illustrating the drawbacks of the head coach's high-risk strategy. This season, Emery's iconic high line has already failed twice, in a 5-1 loss to Newcastle United and a 3-0 loss to Liverpool.

Chelsea aren't always the favourites in this tie because Villa always put a dent on Chelsea aspirations year in year out. The space growing between Thiago Silva and Levi Colwill, who are accountable for all three of Chelsea's open-play concessions, is something Emery will be aiming to close with the direct running of Moussa Diaby and Leon Bailey. Villa are skilled at isolating opposing faults. While Chelsea are becoming sloppier in possession as the bad results mount, Villa's total of 21 direct attacks is a competition high and indicates their threat in transition. 96 ball miscontrols and 56 intercepted passes—both more than any other Premier League squad—have been committed by Pochettino's team. These numbers should terrify Chelsea supporters. Finding their rhythm is becoming increasingly problematic, but with such a young and inexperienced team and a striker who is having trouble scoring goals and lack composition infront of goal.

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