In May of last year, former Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said: “We are not good enough for transition games. If you see our worst moments of the season, or games we struggled, they were all games where the game became transition.”
This quote helps explain why Chelsea may have run less on purpose, particularly in the first part of the season. Instructing his team to play slower while dominating possession would have created fewer turnovers and transitions leading to Chelsea needing to run big distances less often.
Playing more slowly on the ball in theory may have helped Chelsea’s players rest during the game before then pressing more intensely for shorter periods.
This season, Manchester City are top in terms of the average distance run per Premier League game.
Although this appears to be a positive stat, after their 3-0 win against West Ham earlier this season, Guardiola said: “I love [how much we run], last season we didn’t have that. But it’s not enough, we have to play better [so] we could run less.”
Reading between the lines, Guardiola appeared pleased at the increase in commitment but probably wanted his side to play in a less end-to-end fashion, instead looking for more control.