Ovie

Liverpool

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Liverpool are up next, with assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders taking the floor today.

His Reds side won the Carabao Cup not so long ago, in 2022, when they beat Chelsea in the final.

Jurgen Klopp's team experienced an indifferent campaign last term, but have hit the ground running at the start of 2023-24. They are second in the Premier League after six matches, with summer signings such as Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai impressing.

Visiting Anfield on Wednesday is a Leicester City side who sit top of the Championship and are vying for an immediate return to the top flight, following last season's relegation.

Chelsea

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Chelsea's problems in front of goal was a theme Mauricio Pochettino highlighted after Sunday's 1-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa.

Both Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Jackson were thwarted by a stunning display of goalkeeping from World Cup golden glove winner Emiliano Martinez.

But it was Chelsea's third consecutive game they had drawn a blank.

So why are Pochettino's struggling for goals and points? BBC Sport broke down some of the key statistics behind their troubles:

• It is the first time Chelsea have won just one of their opening six games in a Premier League season since 2000-01, while they have suffered three defeats in their first six games for the first time since 2015-16.
• In the past 38 Premier League games - a full season - they have won just nine times and rank 14th of the 17 clubs present in the top flight across both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.
• Since Graham Potter was sacked on 2 April, Chelsea have won twice in 16 Premier League games, gaining 11 points in total.

Read the full statistical breakdown of Chelsea's scoring struggles here.

Chelsea

A final word from Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino on his top priority - scoring goals: "We are not clinical in front of goal. That is what we need to try to fix and to give more confidence to our offensive players. That is the responsibility of everyone.

"In all the other data I think we are in a very positive [state], but the most important thing is to score goals. You don't score goals you cannot win games."

Chelsea

Mauricio Pochettino confirmed that coach Bruno Saltor, who came to the club under previous manager Graham Potter, has left Chelsea.

He said: "He didn't belong to my coaching staff - it's the best decision for him and for sure the club."

Next up for Chelsea is high-flying Brighton, who achieved another big victory at the weekend, defeating Bournemouth 3-1 at the Amex.

Can Mauricio Pochettino's side pick up their third home victory of the season?

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Chelsea

Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino on reports that co-owner Behdad Eghbali went into the dressing room after Sunday's 1-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa: "I like when the owner comes [into the dressing room]. In all my career as a coach - at Espanyol, then Southampton, Tottenham, Paris St-Germain also. I think it is good that the owner comes into the dressing room. It is the way that they approach the players that is most important.

"If they are in a good way and an encouraging way then I think they are very welcome.

"After the game on Sunday they came and shared [time] with us like normal. They also did for Liverpool, in the first [Premier League] game, then Luton, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa.

"I don't see in a bad way. For me it is good always if they share with us [the coaching staff] then can say hello to the players.

"The difference is if they came for some speech or different things then maybe that is different.

"In the way they came, of course they are very welcome. They own the club, they can do whatever they want, but I think they come in a very good way and I am so glad they came and they shared time with us.

"When it is good and we have won the game - perfect - but also, like happened on Sunday, when we didn't win, to share when we are suffering also."

Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool

West Ham 3-1 Chelsea

Chelsea 3-0 Luton

Chelsea 2-1 Wimbledon (Carabao Cup)

Chelsea 0-1 Nottingham Forest

Bournemouth 0-0 Chelsea

Chelsea 0-1 Aston Villa

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Chelsea

Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino on the importance of winning a trophy: "It is one of our objectives in this season. We need to think this is one opportunity to win a trophy.

"Maybe the feelings after the defeat on Sunday are not the best but I feel it is about to move on to get the players the confidence and the trust.

"It is a different competition and we need to change our mood. Yesterday and today we were talking a lot - trying to breathe more confidence into the team - and I think we are going to be ready for tomorrow."

Chelsea

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Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino on what his side need to do to improve upon recent poor results: "We need to be more natural [to score goals]. To create chances is not only about your position [or structure of the team]. The most important thing is to be natural. The team has shown they have real confidence and belief in the way we play, but we need to be more natural [when in potential goalscoring situations].

"We are going to keep working really hard and be positive."

Manchester City

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola on tempering ambitions this early in the season: "It is nice to have the ambition but I say to the players the ambition is the next game. Right now, in the end of September, thinking about titles is a mistake.

"I don't think the problem is mentally. All the players want to fight for titles and that is the best. The problem is a lack of rest. Mentally especially. The seasons come around with two or three weeks off and this is not a lot.

"The players want to win the games and fight to win the titles, these are the players all managers look for. The problem is for the years and years [in the future]. [I] complain a little bit here and then after that forget it and move towards our ambitions."

Manchester City

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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola on recovering between matches: "Don't think about it much, just what is next is Newcastle. When we won a few times this competition we had four or five players [that] don't play regularly and it is perfect. Everyone was fit and we have a strong side. We have a lot of players injured and a lot of players who have a lot of minutes that we have to rest.

"That's why you have to see the matches you are going to play and then play a good starting XI and try to win the game. But I have the consideration that a lot of players have to be considered and we don't want to get injured again.

"You have few people but we are used to it. Previous seasons it was the same. We are used to it so it's no problem."

Manchester City

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola on whether Kalvin Phillips will start against Newcastle: "Yeah he will start.

"Jack [Grealish] is much better. Mateo [Kovacic] as well. I don't know how many minutes but they are going to play.

Is Rodri's suspension a chance for Phillips to step up? "Yeah of course but not just this week. For many times since he has arrived he has been really important. He knows everything in the game like what happened against Nottingham in the second half. You have to defend and make options that helps us boost the team [and] was important. We try to help him and make this step and of course the next games are important and we will see in every game what is best for the team."

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Chelsea

We should be hearing from Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino soon, but, for the time being, the club have issued an update on their injured players, external: Benoit Badiashile and Carney Chukwuemeka are in "partial team training", while Marcus Bettinelli, Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana, Reece James, Christopher Nkunku and Romeo Lavia are all "continuing to undergo their rehabilitation programmes".

Danny

Simon Stone
BBC Sport

Manchester City take their 100% record to Newcastle tomorrow.

The EFL Cup was the one trophy Pep Guardiola's side didn't win last season - but they did win it four seasons in a row from 2018, so City do take it seriously.

The big question is, with Rodri suspended, whether now is the time for Kalvin Phillips to finally get a chance to impress.

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Monday Night Club panellists Andros Townsend and Rory Smith expressed their own views on how Gabriel Jesus should be viewed against his xG stats.

Townsend said: “Never once have I had a conversation about xG in the dressing room. You look at chances missed, if you have created three or four big chances for a striker and he’s missed of course you’ll have words in the dressing room but you use your eyes. We don’t go online and see xG.”

Smith added: “What that (Jesus’ xG stats) suggests is Jesus isn’t a particularly effective, efficient finisher, which is probably what your eyes tell you.”

"Expected goals" is a metric which assesses every chance, essentially answering the question of whether a player should have scored from a certain opportunity.

Put simply, it is a way of assigning a "quality" value (xG) to every attempt based on what we know about it. The higher the xG - with 1 being the maximum - the more likelihood of the opportunity being taken.

So if a chance is 0.5xG, it should be scored 50% of the time.

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Opta revealed, external after Arsenal and Tottenham's 2-2 draw in Sunday's North London Derby how Son Heung-Min has rated on xG stats: "Since making his Premier League debut, only Harry Kane (+37.5) has overperformed his xG by more goals than Son Heung-Min (+32.3)."

That stat is in stark contrast to Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus, who is the biggest underperformer (-15) in the Premier League, when compared with his xG, since his debut for former club Manchester City in 2017.

That means Jesus has scored 15 goals fewer than his xG over his Premier League career, while Son has scored 32 goals more.

The comparisons were made after Son scored two as Tottenham twice came from behind, while Jesus missed a glaring chance to put the Gunners 2-0 up.

Chris Sutton
Former Chelsea striker on BBC's Monday Night Club

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Would Arsenal be better off with an Alvarez or Erling Haaland? Of course they would be. Did they make progress last season? Absolutely. Did they make good signings in the summer? I think they did.

I said at the time, would these signings Arsenal made – Declan Rice, Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber, David Raya – would they get them closer to Manchester City and get it to where they could topple Manchester City? I didn’t think so.

It is a problem for Arsenal. I like Eddie Nketiah, I think he’s a good player. Is he a world-class striker? He’s not. Gabriel Jesus has come in for a fair bit of criticism, I think because he’s not a natural finisher. I think he’s an excellent team player and I do think he’s made Arsenal stronger but he’s not clinical. He’s not a Shearer or a Harry Kane. If they want to be Premier League champions or champions of Europe they probably have to act and bring somebody in but there’s not many out there.

The fact that Jesus played off the left-hand side (against Spurs) – and that may have been because Martinelli was out – if he was that ruthless as a striker and he was the number one striker at Arsenal, he would have played as the central striker. I’m absolutely sure of that but Nketiah is seemingly getting the nod ahead of him in certain games.

Listen to the full episode.