Five standout stats about impending Chelsea signing Joao Felix

 

The news is looking likely to break any second that Joao Felix will join Chelsea on loan after snubbing Arsenal and Manchester United’s approaches this week. It is said that the loan move will cost the Blues around €‎11m and 100% of his salary will be covered by Chelsea. We take a look at five stats which are bound to please Chelsea fans and build some excitement at the prospect of the Portuguese forward finishing the season at Stamford Bridge.  

 

He was key for Portugal at the World Cup  

 

Despite Portugal’s World Cup hopes being dashed by underdogs Morocco in the quarter-finals, on the whole, Joao Felix had a pretty good campaign. The 23-year-old started four of the five games in Qatar for Santos’ side, during which he was Portugal’s third highest performer with a WhoScored rating of 7.10, only behind Bruno Fernandes (8.15) and Diogo Dalot (7.27). 

 

While representing his country at the tournament, he had the highest shots per game return of any of his Portugal teammates (2.8) and found himself on the scoresheet against Ghana. He also chipped in with two assists during the group stages, which all count towards his WhoScored rating.  

 

He is a contributor  

 

You only need to look at his record in La Liga this season to see that what Chelsea will be getting is a proven goal influencer. Joao Felix has four goals and three assists in his 14 appearances in the league this season, including a goal in his first game back from the World Cup against Elche at the end of December.  

 

With Chelsea hampered, by injuries they are crying out for a creative player who can get among the goals, and Felix looks as though he can be exactly that. Felix has the fourth best minutes per goal contribution at 112.4 in La Liga since the start of the 2020/21 season and that is only bettered by Lionel Messi (77.5), Karim Benzema (79) and Gerard Moreno (99.4). The Blues have scored just three goals in their last eight games, and so Chelsea fans will be hoping that he can hit the ground running and get to producing and scoring goals as quickly as possible.  

 

 

How do his ratings shape up? 

 

He can offer Chelsea another creative outlet. Chelsea have really struggled in front of goal of late and haven’t created too much in the way of chances, which is exactly where Felix can come to the fore. He’s looked exciting in almost every game that he has started for Atletico this season including providing seven goal contributions in his seven La Liga starts. 

 

This season is not a one season wonder though, and if we take a look at his rating from all of his starts from last season we can see that he was the fifth highest rated of any player in La Liga to make 10 or more starts in 2021/22 with a rating of 7.42. Chelsea fans will surely be licking their lips at this return and will praying that he is easily transferable into the Premier League.  

 

He can be versatile 

 

With Chelsea’s injury issues looming larger by the day, it will be a breath of fresh air for Potter to have a multifaceted player like Joao Felix that he can use in different ways. So far this season we’ve seen Felix excel out wide, up front and just behind the strikers for Atletico. Looking at the WhoScored ratings, his best position does seem to be in the attacking midfielder role, but with injuries to the likes of Sterling, Pulisic and even Armando, Broja it’s likely that he will be used out wide, or even up front, in his early days in the Premier League.  

 

He has a lot of Champions League experience  

 

It is easy to forget, with the World Cup interrupting the usual proceedings, that the turn of the year means that it isn’t very long until European football returns and for Chelsea that means a round of 16 match up with Borussia Dortmund. With a congested domestic calendar on top of an ever increasing injury list, Chelsea are pretty desperate to strengthen ahead of any European obligations.  

 

This is another reason that the Felix move just makes sense. For a player of his age he has had pretty impressive exposure to the Champions League, featuring on 27 occasions for Atletico Madrid. During that time, he’s been on the scoresheet seven times. His best Champions League campaign was in 2020/21 season, where Atletico were knocked out by Chelsea in the round of 16. In that season, he featured on eight occasions scoring three times and ending with an overall rating of 7.28.

Five standout stats about impending Chelsea signing Joao Felix