Chelsea Update: Defensive Woes Wane with Star's Comeback... But Is Liam Rosenior the Worst Manager in Blues History?

IS Liam Rosenior the worst manager in Chelsea history?

That is already the view of some fed up fans at .

Rosenior is under pressure after Chelsea’s defeat at Everton made it four losses on the bounceCredit: Getty Images The Blues boss has divided the fanbase after replacing Enzo Maresca in JanuaryCredit: Images/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

But according to the stats, he is not.

Rosenior has been in charge for ten Premier League matches, with five wins, two draws and three losses.

That would put fourth in the Premier League table, behind Man Utd in first, Arsenal in second, and Man City in third.

Rosenior’s current 50 per cent win rate in the league actually ranks him the 14th-best manager of the PL era, with eight managers worse off than him.

He sits above , Andre Villas-Boas, Gianluca Vialli, Ruud Gullit, Graham Potter, David Webb, Glenn Hoddle and Ian Porterfield.

In the BlueCo era, Potter, at the bottom of the list, had a win rate of just 38.7 per cent before he was sacked.

There is an argument that Rosenior has inherited a much better and more stable side than Potter did.

The team Rosenior took over are the current “world champions” and has multiple £100million-plus assets in the starting XI, compared to Potter, who still had an expensive squad, but had to contend with the maddest transfer window of all time.

By comparison, , whom Rosenior replaced, had a win rate of 59.8 per cent.

Based on this season alone, the stats show the stark difference between Rosenior’s Chelsea and Maresca’s.

In terms of attacking metrics, the Blues have improved.

But defensively, they have got pretty drastically worse.

In Maresca’s 19 games in charge, the Blues scored an average of 1.7 goals per game in the Premier League, which has increased to 1.9 under Rosenior.

They have also gone from creating 2.7 big chances per game to 3.7.

However, they’ve gone from conceding 1.1 goals per game to 1.4, and Rosenior’s side has kept just ONE clean sheet in his first ten PL games as head coach.

By comparison, Maresca’s men kept eight clean sheets in 19 games, which percentage-wise is a drop from 42 per cent to ten per cent.

Unfortunately for Rosenior, it looks as though things are going to get worse before they get better.

Chelsea face Port Vale in the FA Cup after the international break, before games against Manchester City and Manchester United.

Both Manchester clubs are above the Stamford Bridge outfit in the table based on since Rosenior took charge.

A loss to League One Port Vale would be a complete and utter calamity and ruin Chelsea’s chances of any type of silverware this season – but the idea of that happening feels far-fetched for now.

So no, Rosenior is NOT the worst manager in Chelsea’s history.

But if things don’t improve, he could well be in that conversation by the end of his tenure.

CHANTING SHAME

CHELSEA players were subjected to homophobic chanting ahead of their defeat at on Saturday.

Fans near the team bus at the Hill Dickinson Stadium over the weekend directed homophobic chants at the Blues squad as they headed towards the away changing room.

The Toffees are understood to be investigating the incident.

Chelsea have worked tirelessly over the years to tackle homophobic chanting by opposition fanbases and are pleased with the support they are given from rival clubs.

Since January 2022, the chanting of ‘r*** b**’ has been deemed a homophobic slur by the Crown Prosecution Service and anyone found guilty of singing it could be prosecuted for committing a hate crime. The FA can also charge clubs if their fans use the slur.

In July 2023 a Fulham fan was handed a three-year banning order for using the slur in a chant at a game between the London rivals.

Everton Football Club have been contacted for comment.

COLWILL RETURN

LEVI COLWILL has returned to training in recent weeks following his ACL injury last summer.

Rosenior said recently that the England defender was still a long way off returning to full fitness, but there is a careful plan in place to ensure he gets there.

Levi Colwill has returned to first team training over the past monthCredit: Getty

Much as Romeo Lavia did when recovering from his latest injury, Chelsea plan to give Colwill a run out with the Under-21s before making the step back up to senior level.

Chelsea’s youngsters face London rivals Fulham in Premier League 2 on April 10, when the defender could make his long-awaited return.

Colwill flourished at last summer’s Club World Cup and would have been a firm fixture this season, but suffered an ACL injury on the first day of pre-season following the Blues’ short break after their triumph in New Jersey on July 13 last year.

TERRY’S POLITICS

SOME Chelsea fans think John Terry should be given a bigger role at the club.

But that assumes the man himself wants one.

And it raises the question what might stop the Blues giving it to him.

JT went public with frustration he was not asked to be part of the caretaker first-team coaching staff between the departure of Enzo Maresca and appointment of Liam Rosenior.

Terry recently vented his frustration at not being considered as an interim boss for the first teamCredit: Getty Images

Yet he also admitted he enjoyed the life balance of combining a part-time role at the club’s Academy with his work at his own foundation.

If Terry was a full-time, high-profile Chelsea employee, his social media interaction with Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe might have raised issues for the club.

Former Southampton chairman Lowe posted a complaint about a sign in Bengali at a London Underground station. He said RB supported a ban on non-English signs and on the burqa, the item of clothing worn by some Muslim women.

Terry responded with three clapping emojis and an English flag.

The former Chelsea and England captain received some backlash and some support online.

But it would be a different thing to talk about it in person at Cobham.

Like many clubs, the Blues have a multinational and multi-faith dressing room. Wesley Fofana, Tosin Adarabioyo and Mamadou Sarr are all Muslims, and there are doubtless others in the youth set-up, where Terry is a mentor.

The brief row over his apparent approval of Lowe’s sentiments was a distraction from Chelsea’s on-pitch problems.

But if he was a more senior figure inside the club, it would have made the overall situation worse for the Blues.

KAVUMA THE KING

RYAN KAVUMA-McQUEEN is the next superstar to come out of Chelsea’s Cobham set-up, we’re sure of it.

It feels as though Liam Rosenior knows it too, and has been preparing the youngster for his first-team debut.

Kavuma-McQueen has bagged 16 goals in 26 games for club and country this seasonCredit: Dave Shopland/Shutterstock

He travelled with the Blues to Wrexham in the FA Cup, but wasn’t named in the squad, before being an unused substitute in the second leg thrashing against PSG.

Away from the first team, though, he has been literally smashing it.

And by it, we mean the ball into the back of the net.

The 17-year-old scored a thunderbolt last week for Chelsea’s under-21s side in a 4-0 victory, which put them back at the top of the PL2.

He struck the ball so hard that the camera filming the game couldn’t keep up with the shot, leading fans on X to compare him to Gareth Bale, as both are left-footed.

The versatile winger has now got 16 goals in 26 games for club and country this season, and will be hoping to be involved against League One Port Vale in the next round of the FA Cup after the international break.

RUNNING MAN

It’s up for debate whether the international break has come at a good time for Chelsea or not.

On one hand, away with their national teams, players will have a bit of a chance to regroup and get some positivity back in their lives.

Perhaps it will serve as a bit of a reset before they return to London.

On the other hand, an opportunity to instantly bounce back would perhaps help lift the mood a bit in West London.

But there is one silver lining to all this, and that is for SunSport Chelsea Reporter Lloyd Canfield.

Lloyd has been doing a social media challenge, running a certain distance depending on the Blues’ results, and began it on the 1st March.

Poor timing.

He runs 2km when Chelsea win, 5km when they draw, and 8km when they lose – plus 1km for every goal they concede in that game.

So far, since the 1st March, he has run 59km over the course of seven games.

The challenge seems fitting, as Chelsea have been outrun by their opposition in EVERY Premier League match this season.

The 13km Lloyd had to run after PSG put five past the Blues was more ground than ANY Chelsea player has covered in any match this season.

You can keep up to date with Lloyd’s running challenge on his social media HERE .