Another season is at an end and it is time to look back on our 2023/24 campaign through the eyes of club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton. In the second section of their three-part review, it is time for the players' individual statistics to go under the microscope...
The campaign was one of growth for the players in the Chelsea squad –and a strong end to the season ensured we finished inside the top six and secured European football for the 2024/25 season.
Every member of the squad – either on the pitch or away from it – had an impact. But let's start with an Academy graduate...
In his debut campaign in the Chelsea first team (2021/22), Trevoh Chalobah was unbeaten after 25 starts in all competitions (excluding penalty shoot-outs). This time around, the Academy graduate was undefeated across ten league matches as a starter for the Blues.
Another product from Cobham, Conor Gallagher, played in 37 of our 38 Premier League matches. He conceded (83) and drew (64) the most fouls across the campaign.
Moises Caicedo, meanwhile, made more tackles (91) and blocks (25) than any other Chelsea player while Thiago Silva registered more clearances (148) than his teammates.
Age is just a number
Twenty-one players, all but three aged 23 or younger, made their Chelsea debuts throughout the season. That is the most since our inaugural season in 1905/06.
Players under the age of 23 netted 51 Premier League goals for us this season. No team has ever managed more from players that young.
Unsurprisingly, the average age of the Londoners’ starting XI in the Premier League across the season was 24 years and 233 days – 15 days younger than the next oldest, Burnley.
Our previous youngest in the competition was during seasons 2004/05 (25) and 1993/94, 2005/06, and 2019/20 (all 26).
The goals
Only Newcastle (20), Brentford (18), and Fulham and Manchester United (17) boasted more Premier League goal scorers than the Blues’ 16.
Cole Palmer was one of those and he broke the deadlock nine times over our league campaign, joining illustrious Chelsea company on the same figure: Gianfranco Zola (1998/99), Didier Drogba (2006/07), and Eden Hazard (2014/15).
The summer signing from Man City also became only the third Blues player to score 20-plus goals and provide 10-plus assists in a Premier League season (22 goals, 11 assists), after Frank Lampard (22 goals, 14 assists) and Didier Drogba (29 goals, 10 assists). Both achieved their feats in the 2009/10 double-winning campaign.
In May, Palmer became our first player to be voted Premier League Player of the Month since Hazard in September 2018.
He is also the first Blue to be named PFA Fans’ Player of the Year since our Belgian maestro in 2019. Lauren James scooped the same honour in the Women's Super League.
Palmer also netted seven match-winning goals in the league, a figure only bettered for Chelsea by Diego Costa (10 in 2016/17) and Didier Drogba (nine in 2009/10).
Only Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (five in 2001/02) has ever netted more past Tottenham Hotspur in a single Premier League season than Nicolas Jackson, who scored four of his 14 goals against Tottenham during his debut season in English football.
All 14 of Jackson's strikes were scored from inside the box but none of them were spot-kicks.
The last time Chelsea had two players with ten-plus goals in their maiden campaigns – like Palmer and Jackson – was in 2000/01 with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (23) and Eidur Gudjohnsen (10).
Meanwhile, Caicedo’s 50.5-yard goal against Bournemouth – the Ecuador midfielder’s first for the Blues – was struck from the furthest distance in the Premier League since Everton’s Wayne Rooney found the net from 57.7 yards against West Ham in November 2017.
Raheem Sterling scored our only direct free-kick in the top flight in 2023/24.
When he netted against Sheffield United in April 2024, departing legend Thiago Silva (aged 39 years and 198 days) became the Premier League’s third-oldest goal scorer of all time, behind Teddy Sheringham and Dean Windass.
In memoriam
Tommy Baldwin (1945-2024)
James Clare (1959-2023)
Chris Garland (1949-2023)
Ian Hamilton (1950-2024)
Len Kell (1932-2023)
Miles Spector (1934-2023)
Terry Venables (1943-2023)
Len Kell, one of Ted Drake’s ‘Ducklings’ who played three times for the Blues in 1953/54, was Chelsea's oldest living player at the time of his death, aged 91 in December 2023.
We now believe that mantle passes to Len’s contemporary, goalkeeper Mike Collins (born 8 June 1933), who spent six years with the Blues, making one senior appearance before joining Watford in 1957.
