In picking players at Chelsea, less is more for Jose Mourinho

In an examination of Premier League player usage, Jose Mourinho proves the stingiest in giving time to Chelsea squad members.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has his side seven points up on Arsenal with a game in hand for the Premier League lead. Ben Stansall / AFP / April 12, 2015

Should Premier League chiefs be handing out winners' medals at Stamford Bridge at the end of the season, they are likely to find they have a surplus of gold.

The Premier League is probably still counting out the enormous increase in income from their improved television deal, but they can also expect to make a saving this year when handing out medals at the end of the season.

Chelsea are cruising towards the title, yet Jose Mourinho has engineered a successful campaign that has called on the services of just 22 players – the fewest in the Premier League – three of whom have started every single match so far.

Despite entering the twilight years of their careers at Stamford Bridge, Branislav Ivanovic and John Terry – along with Belgian playmaker Eden Hazard – have been ever-presents for Mourinho this season and it has been their consistency in form and fitness which has proven key to Chelsea’s dominance on the domestic scene.

This reliance on a core group of players is something Chelsea’s rivals have been unable – or unwilling – to match, with neither Arsenal, Manchester City or Manchester United having even one ever-present in their starting line-ups so far this season.

The familiarity of Chelsea’s team sheets this season are in stark contrast to those submitted by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who has used 29 different players this term, with only Manchester United (32) and Queens Park Rangers (31) having called on more of their squad members.

Furthermore, of the 29 players Wenger has picked, 17 of them have seen more than 1,000 minutes of action – the most in the league. Compare this to the 22 Chelsea players to have seen first team football: only 11 of them have enjoyed more than 1,000 minutes of playing time this term.

At the opposite end of the table, Burnley can at least claim one similarity with the champions elect. Manager Sean Dyche has fielded just 23 players in the Premier League this season – only one more than Mourinho – and is the only other manager besides the Chelsea coach to have named three players on every team sheet this term: Thomas Heaton, Jason Shackell and Keiran Trippier. Between both clubs they have six of the 16 players to have started every Premier League game this season.

While Dyche has been content to stick by his players despite their predicament, fellow strugglers QPR have chopped and changed their line-up throughout the campaign. Only Manchester United’s Louis van Gaal, who endured a crippling injury crisis during the first few months of his reign, has used more players than QPR this season, with more than 28 different names featuring on the team sheets of managers Harry Redknapp and Chris Ramsey.

Yet while Chelsea have proved that quality over quantity is what counts when it comes to winning the Premier League, Mourinho’s small squad has ultimately failed to carry the burden of competing on multiple fronts and some new arrivals at Stamford Bridge over the summer look inevitable.

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