Reece James (£6.0m) and the fit-again Ben Chilwell (£6.0m) have been priced up identically in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) ahead of the relaunch for the 2022/23 season.
Both players are unsurprisingly cheaper than the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m), Andrew Robertson (£7.0m) and Joao Cancelo (£7.0m), FPL’s three top-scoring defenders of 2021/22.
While some Fantasy managers will be tempted to punt on a Chelsea defensive double-up, how do Chilwell and James stack up in comparison if it’s an ‘either/or’?
We investigate in this latest Premium Members article.
PERIOD OF ANALYSIS
Typically in pre-season, we concentrate on players’ exploits in the previous campaign.
But Chilwell made only six starts and one substitute appearance in an injury-ravaged 2021/22, so we’ve extended the lookahead to Gameweek 20 of 2020/21 onwards – Thomas Tuchel’s first match in charge of Chelsea – in order to increase the data sample size.
Although we’re mostly comparing James and Chilwell in this article, we’ve also included the same underlying stats for Alexander-Arnold, Robertson and Cancelo for 2021/22 only, just as a point of reference.
GOAL THREAT
| Player | Mins per penalty box touch | Mins per shot | Mins per shot in the box | Mins per big chance | Mins per shot on target |
| Chilwell | 24.3 | 52.9 | 64.4 | 370.5 | 148.2 |
| James | 29.3 | 58.5 | 110.8 | 1033.7 | 221.5 |
| Alexander-Arnold | 33.2 | 56 | 178.4 | n/a | 190.3 |
| Robertson | 27.3 | 141.2 | 231 | 847 | 317.6 |
| Cancelo | 29.9 | 39.8 | 104.1 | 819.3 | 140.3 |
Chilwell has generally posed the bigger goal threat under Tuchel.
While there isn’t a great deal separating the pair when it comes to minutes per shot (52.9 v 58.5), Chilwell really stands out when it comes to higher quality, close-range efforts.
While just under 50% of James’s shots have been from outside the area, over 80% of Chilwell’s attempts have come from inside the opposition box.
In fact, Chilwell’s stats compare really well with the numbers that Alexander-Arnold, Cancelo and Robertson were posting last season.
