4 goals, 3 assists in 51 games — what makes Chelsea want to pay £50m for Anthony Gordon? Answered

Chelsea have been linked to Everton forward Anthony Gordon and have even had an initial bid rejected by the Toffees, as per top sources such as Paul Joyce.

Gordon was one of the silver linings in a dreary season for Everton last year and the fans love him for one reason – his tenacity.

He only accumulated 4 goals and 3 assists in 35 games in the Premier League in 2021/22, but there’s more to him than just those numbers.

Gordon is capable of playing in behind the striker as well as the left or right wing. He possesses the awareness to make good runs along the wings and on the inside channels as well.

Here’s a look at his heat-map depicting his average positions last season:

He makes clever runs in behind the defence and has the pace to stretch backlines.

Gordon is also quite an effective dribbler, coming in at third place in terms of highest success rate in the Premier League last season with 63.5% of his dribbles being successful.

In terms of his defensive work, Gordon is highly energetic and a willing presser of the ball. He ranks in 96th percentile of the attacking players with most number of pressures in the top 5 leagues in Europe. His rate of tackling and blocking isn’t too bad either:

He showed a glimpse of what he’s capable of in just the first game of the season against Chelsea last week:

In terms of his goal scoring and creation, he still needs to up his numbers but playing in a struggling Everton side has done him no favours. At the youth level, the last time he was in the double figures for goals or assists, was the 2017/18 season when he scored 14 goals in 15 games for the Everton U18s.

He’s still only 21 years old and seems to be a hard worker. He has the creativity and skill to be able to take on defenders and trouble defences. Under the right guidance it is likely that his end product and decision-making can be improved upon, should he sign for Chelsea.