It’s not been a great start to the season for Chelsea.
In the Premier League, Enzo Maresca’s side sits in eighth place with two wins, two draws, and two losses from their opening six games.
In the Champions League, they lost to Bayern Munich before beating Benfica, and in the League Cup, they just about got over the line against League One side Lincoln City.
Unsurprisingly, plenty of the Blues’ exciting young stars, like Jamie Gittens, have struggled this year, which makes their decision to sell an upgrade on him in the summer all the more perplexing.
Gittens poor start to life at Chelsea
Chelsea opted to spend around £48m on Gittens in the summer, and while such a fee now seems a little excessive, it didn’t appear too high at the time.
After all, the 21-year-old ended last season having scored 12 goals and provided five assists from 48 games for Borussia Dortmund.
Moreover, Sky Sports’ Dougie Critchley even went as far as to claim he was “England’s best left winger in 2024/25”.
Unfortunately, it would seem utterly absurd to make such a claim today, as the Reading-born ace has so far failed to live up to expectations at Chelsea.
As things stand, the dynamic winger has made six appearances for the club, of which three have been starts, and yet he has not scored or provided an assist.
However, it’s worse than that, as, on top of having no end product, the summer signing hasn’t even had moments in which he’s looked promising, let alone good.
In almost all of his appearances, he ends up going missing, and when he does have the ball at his feet, he seemingly always makes the wrong decision.
For example, he failed to have a single shot on target in 70 minutes against Lincoln and gave away the ball with every other touch in his cameo against Benfica.
The performances have been so underwhelming that one content creator has labelled him as “shockingly bad.”
Minutes
29′
Expected Assists
0.01
Shots on Target
0
Dribbles (Successful)
3 (1)
Touches
16
Lost Possession
8
Accurate Passes
3/5
Key Passes
0
Duels (Won)
8 (4)
Crosses (Accurate)
1 (0)
Gittens’ poor start to the season has left some wondering why the club sold someone who looks like a far better player, someone some have even compared to Bukayo Saka.
The Gittens upgrade sold by Chelsea
The nature of Chelsea’s transfer strategy means that they are going to sell some young talents too soon, or without securing adequate backup.
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That seems to be the case with Noni Madueke, as even though he had his own problems at Chelsea, it’s hard not to look at him as a clear upgrade on Gittens at the moment.
Now, there will be plenty of you happily pointing out that, like the former Dortmund star, the new Arsenal is yet to score a goal or provide an assist for his new club.
However, ask a fan of the Gunners, or a pundit for that matter, and they’ll happily explain that while the lack of end product isn’t ideal, it doesn’t take away from the fact that, before his injury, the Englishman was a breath of fresh air.
The “mentality monster,” as dubbed by former personal coach Saul Isaksson-Hurst, has brought a level of directness that has been missing from the North Londoners for some time, and was so good in the game against Nottingham Forest that he got a standing ovation.
In fact, he’s been so exciting to watch that some have even suggested he could truly rival Saka for a place in the starting lineup, with former Chelsea and England defender Paul Parker saying: “With the way he plays, I actually think he’s better than Bukayo Saka.”
While that is almost certainly overdoing it, comparing Madueke and Gitten’s underlying numbers from this season makes it clear that the former Blues star is doing far more for his new side than his younger compatriot.
Non-Penalty Expected G+As
0.13
0.28
Progressive Passes
0.53
2.50
Progressive Carries
4.21
5.91
Shots on Target
0.37
0.92
Key Passes
1.58
1.82
Passes into the Penalty Area
0.53
1.82
Shot-Creating Actions
3.09
3.20
Goal-Creating Actions
0.00
0.46
Successful Take-Ons
1.58
1.82
For example, even with the easier game against Lincoln, the former PSV Eindhoven star performs far better in key metrics, such as non-penalty expected goals plus assists, progressive passes and carries, passes into the penalty area, successful take-ons, and more, all per 90 minutes.
In other words, despite playing tougher opposition, the West Londoners’ former winger is putting up far better numbers than their new one this season.
Ultimately, things may well work out for Gittens, but as things stand, it looks like Chelsea made a mistake signing him and selling Madueke.