11 duels won; 1 lost – Chelsea star’s ridiculous game by the numbers

This evening, Chelsea went down to ten men in the first half against the best team in the world right now. They needed a top performance – and boy did they get it.

Lots of players in Blue deserve credit for how they played, but the champions of all was Reece James, who stepped up when his team needed it and put in an imperious showing in midfield.

Reece James utterly dominant in midfield role

Duels stats from Chelsea’s draw with Arsenal.

The stats behind his performance are obscene. His utter dominance in the game was summed up by his duels stats – he won 11, more than anyone else on the pitch. But what’s ridiculous is the ratio – he lost just ONE.

To put that into context, the other players towards the top of the list were getting rations like 11:1, 7:8, 7:3 or 7:9.

James also drew 4 fouls, more than anyone else in the game as he surged through the middle of the pitch time and again. Fotmob gave him a final score of 8.2, the highest of any outfield player, and he won the man of the match award.

This was his second midfield masterclass in the space of a week –  he was fresh from tearing apart Barcelona too.

He’s back to his very best and we can’t describe how happy that makes us. Let’s give him a midweek off and have him back to his best for our game next weekend. He’s a pivotal player for our trophy chances this season.

You can see his highlights from the game in the clip embedded here:

In other news…

James put in a heroic performance in midfield against the Gunners, and was lavished with praise by pundits at full time.

Chelsea were reduced to ten men by the nasty tackle from Moises Caicedo, which you can see here.