LIVE STREAM : Chelsea vs Western Sydney Wanderers

Chelsea vs Western Sydney Wanderers

Chelsea face Western Sydney Wanderers at Accor Stadium on Tuesday with kick-off at 7.45pm local time (10.45am BST), as part of the Sydney Super Cup. The tournament also features Sydney FC and Tottenham Hotspur.

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Chelsea head to Australia looking to bounce back from a disappointing domestic campaign. They finished 10th in the Premier League with 52 points following a season that also saw defeat in the FA Cup final to Manchester City. Their underlying numbers suggested that mid-table finish was a fair reflection of their performances.

Chelsea’s 27.58 xPTS ranked 12th in the Premier League, closely matching their final position, while they averaged 1.63 xG and 1.52 xGA per home match, highlighting a side that remained entertaining but lacked consistency at both ends of the pitch.

Western Sydney Wanderers endured a miserable A-League campaign on the surface, finishing bottom of the 12-team table with just 21 points from 26 matches and ending the season with five consecutive defeats. The underlying numbers painted a completely different picture.

Their 38 xPTS ranked sixth in the A-League, 17 points higher than their actual return and comfortably in mid-table, representing by far the biggest underperformance in the division.

The numbers suggest finishing, rather than chance creation, was the biggest issue. Western Sydney averaged 4.6 shots on target per game, ranking seventh in the league, while their 726 touches inside the opposition penalty area ranked third.

However, a conversion rate of just 6.8% was comfortably the worst in the competition, despite creating 61 big chances during the season. Defensively, they kept five clean sheets, tied for seventh in the league, although opponents converted 38.2% of their shots on target against them, the highest figure in the division, suggesting that when teams created clear opportunities they were punished far too often.

The Wanderers have also begun a new era under Ufuk Talay, who opened his reign with a 2-0 victory over Tigers FC in the Hahn Australia Cup. Miguel Di Pizio and Brandon Borrello scored the goals, while Di Pizio, German Ferreyra, Panashe Madanha and Liam Gillion all made their competitive debuts for the club.