Chelsea is currently top of the Barclays Premier League but no one can deny that they are still a work in progress, a team in transition. They are currently unbeaten in 14 matches and also have conceded least goals in the league with most number of clean sheets. It is no surprise to many that Chelsea has the meanest defence in the league, since Mourinho prefers to build his teams from the back and so far he has done a fantastic job at Chelsea but it is upfront that Chelsea has suffered this season. Chelsea’s mean defence has seen the odds on Chelsea to win the league this season increase.
Their strikers have been misfiring and if Chelsea was to fail to win the league this season, it is down to the profligacy of their strikers. Their 3 strikers put together have scored just 14 of the team’s 59 league goals this season (Eto’o 7, Torres 4 and Ba 3), for a team aiming to win the league it is a very poor return from its strikers and when compared to its rivals both in England and in Europe, it is beyond poor.
No team have ever won the Epl (any of the top 5 leagues) without at least a consistent goal scoring striker but given their strong defence, Chelsea might just be the first. Mourinho was criticised for sending Lukaku on loan to Everton because of the Belgian’s early season form (he now has 10th league goals to his name) but as the season progressed, the Portuguese saw the loopholes in his team and set out to address them in the winter transfer, Matic was signed to cover the holes in the pivot but surprisingly Chelsea didn’t sign a striker.
The fans complained and the media were caught out cold because everyone thought their first order of business would have been a striker but a DM was signed instead. When asked to explain his reasons for not signing a striker, the Chelsea manager said;
“To do something now as an emergency plan is not the best thing. The players we’re signing now are the right ones for our future: [Nemanja] Matic, [Mohamed] Salah, Zouma, a young kid for the future… We don’t sign a striker now as an emergency plan to score half a dozen goals to give us half a dozen extra points, whatever they mean for us. So we’re waiting for the summer to do the right thing in that area. But no deals, we just know basically what we want, and we know what we want is impossible to get in this transfer window.”
That for me was a clear statement that he already knows his target and maybe has set things in motion to get his man in the summer.
With Chelsea been linked with host of names from Falcao to Diego Costa, from Cavani to Balotelli, one thing is for sure, Chelsea will sign a striker in the summer and with Lukaku returning, they will become a more complete team and a stronger force to be reckon with next season.
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