Football
Mark Worrall, Chelsea blogger 6y

Goal-shy Chelsea are frustrating fans but things are not as bad as they seem

Many Chelsea supporters have become increasingly frustrated with their teams current goal-shy malaise. The latest of three successive 0-0 draws, the first time that's happened in the clubs history which dates 5,006 matches back to 1905, drew boos from sections of the Stamford Bridge crowd at the final whistle of the stalemate against Leicester City and social media's growing army of keyboard warriors were soon laying into manager Antonio Conte, his players and the London club's board.

Coming on the back of blanks against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semifinal first leg and Championship side Norwich City in the FA Cup third round the scoreless Premier League draw with Leicester was bound to draw criticism in particular of Chelsea's record signing Alvaro Morata, now without a goal in five games, and Eden Hazard who appears to have lost his mojo.

Without the striker and talismanic creative midfielder on song the Blues have looked impotent, but are things really as bad as they seem?

In defence of Conte's side they have scored 66 goals in all competitions in the 33 matches they have played to date this season, an average of exactly two per game. Furthermore, Chelsea are in the top four of the Premier League, through to the knockout stages of the Champions League, still in the FA Cup and one victory away from a Wembley appearance in the Carabao Cup final.

After winning the Premier League last year, Conte joked about avoiding a "Mourinho season," a barbed reference to Chelsea's fall from grace shortly after the Portuguese guided them to the title in 2015. The Italian has certainly done that. Yes, right now there are reasons to be frustrated, but three draws are not three losses. Two weeks ago, Chelsea pummelled Stoke City 5-0 at the Bridge and life was a bed of blue roses for the club's supporters who were eyeing the second half of the season with relish.

Maybe Chelsea fans have become too impatient, spoiled perhaps by recent achievements.

The club have set a plethora of records in the Premier League era, among them one for scoring the most goals in a season. In the 2009-10 double-winning campaign, the Blues scored a combined 120 goals in the league and FA Cup and a further 22 goals in the Champions League, League Cup and Community Shield.

Scoring 142 goals in 56 games made for an average of 2.5 goals per game. Five players registered double-figure hauls over the course of the season. Didier Drogba with an outstanding 37 goals in all competitions top scored and the Ivorian legend's supporting cast didn't do a bad job either with Frank Lampard scoring 27 goals, Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka each netting 15 times and Salamon Kalou scoring 12 goals.

It's easy for Chelsea supporters to get misty-eyed at those stats and the names that go with them and dream about the glory days of Drogba and Lampard and how the Blues have yet to find players of the same calibre to take the club forward, but things are surely not as bad as they seem to some of them if comparing the 2.5 goals per game average from 2009-10 with the current campaign's running average of two goals per game.

Of course Chelsea will score goals again and the forthcoming FA Cup replay with Norwich presents the ideal opportunity to register a confidence-boosting decisive victory. That tie is followed swiftly by a Premier League game away at Brighton and the second leg semifinal showdown with Arsenal at the Emirates.

Win those games and the three 0-0 draws will be forgotten in an instant and it's down to Conte to determine the best way to achieve that objective.

Starting Morata against Norwich could prove productive if the striker scores early. With confidence returned, the 24-year old could kick on quite easily and rapidly return to the form that brought him six goals in his first six games for Chelsea at the start of the season. The flipside ie a start for Morata and a disappointing blank could have the reverse effect though which makes it a gamble.

Michy Batshuayi is no longer a credible alternative to Morata. The 24-year old striker looks destined for a loan move this month and it's too early to talk about possible replacements that may or may not be signed in January.

Conte could of course opt to deploy Hazard as a "false 9" flanked by Willian and Pedro. The Italian has tried this setup on a number of occasions with mixed results.

Another alternative for the Norwich game would be for Conte to start 17-year old academy starlet Callum Hudson-Odoi who scored a hat-trick at the weekend for Chelsea's under-23 side in a 5-0 rout of Sunderland. Blues fans have recently been clamouring for Hudson-Odoi to be given a chance, and the Norwich match would be an ideal opportunity for him to step up to the first team and prove he can score goals at a higher level.

It's an intriguing puzzle for Conte to solve, but the Blues boss is the man best placed right now to find the solution -- and he will. Given Chelsea's bounce-back-ability, normal service will be resumed shortly as it always is which makes all that abrasive supporter impatience seem rather pointless.

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