Chelsea may not have delivered a dominant performance against Leicester City, but their 1-0 victory, secured by a long-range strike from Marc Cucurella, was viewed as a significant result by the club’s hierarchy.

According to The Telegraph’s Matt Law, speaking on the London Is Blue Podcast, Chelsea’s decision-makers considered this win “very important” due to internal data modeling linked to their Champions League qualification hopes.

“I know internally at Chelsea they have been doing a little bit of data modelling over the last few weeks and the data modelling they came up with suggested that they needed to finish before the international break with at least 49 points.”

Chelsea’s victory over Leicester ensured they hit that exact target, which is why, despite an unimpressive display, the result was celebrated behind the scenes.

“So the Leicester win, albeit not convincing and not particularly impressive in many respects, has been viewed as very important internally because they’ve hit what their data modelling suggested at bare minimum they needed to be on going into that international break to really give them a good chance of Champions League qualification, so that win was viewed as a big win.”

With 49 points now secured, Chelsea still have the chance to exceed expectations by earning a result against Arsenal on Sunday, their final game before the March international break. A positive outcome at the Emirates Stadium could further strengthen their position in the race for a top-four finish.