A stat shared by football journalist Daniel Storey on Twitter suggests that questions need to start being asked of Chelsea manager Frank Lampard.
Lampard has steered clear of criticism for much of his Chelsea tenure to date, with Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who actually finished ahead of Lampard last term, being continually peppered in the press.
Is it evidence of the preferential treatment being given to English managers? Is that such a bad thing considering how few of them there are in the top flight? Whatever your opinion on the matter, the fact is that Chelsea are not doing well enough at current.
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This stat shared by Daniel Storey on Twitter proves that fact.
Chelsea currently on course for 63 points. The last Chelsea manager to record fewer over the course of an entire season was Ruud Gullit in 1996/97.
— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) December 27, 2020
The asterisk there is that Chelsea had no permanent manager in the 2015/16 campaign, with Jose Mourinho being sacked and interim boss Guus Hiddink steering them to a tenth-place finish.
The point stands, though. No permanently employed Chelsea manager has finished with a lower points tally than Chelsea are on track for this term since 1997.
Next up for Chelsea – Aston Villa and Manchester City. Best of luck, Frank.