Chelsea and misfiring strikers – it’s a match made in heaven and a story as outdated as time.
The nice forwards we’ve had over time – Didier Drogba, Diego Costa, Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink – have all been the exception quite than the rule. In between them there’s been a whole lot of dross.
Simply take a look at our post-Costa efforts. Most of them shone brightly for a quick spell, however none have been ever capable of fill his boots correctly. We’ve tried and failed so many instances, and that quantity 9 shirts’ curse nonetheless appears to hold heavy.
We’ve managed nice success even with no true successor up entrance, however boy wouldn’t it be helpful to have one. One of many widespread threads from the entire previous couple of years is the dearth of a constant goalscorer up high. That’s hardly distinctive to us – most groups within the league are all the time looking for an everyday scorer. However given the billions we’ve spent, the return has been remarkably poor.
Simply a few months in the past, most of us have been satisfied we had lastly cracked it. Nicolas Jackson began the season robust, constructing on final yr’s enhancements, and we actually thought that he had reached a brand new degree.
By late November, the briefs from the membership have been that they thought-about him among the many 3 finest strikers within the Premier League.
He isn’t a pure finisher, however his hyperlink up play and energy off the ball appeared to compensate. And he was nonetheless scoring frequently – after we beat Brentford in mid-December he had scored 9 in 16 Premier League begins. That had him heading in the right direction for a 21 aim season, with out penalties. That’s first rate.
Let’s not overlook, Drogba was by no means tremendous prolific, however his different qualities greater than made up for it.
However since that sport he’s scored 0 in 5 begins. His confidence seems to be gone and his unhealthy ending approach has come to the fore: even an AI picture generator would battle to determine how he contorted his physique form and missed that likelihood on the close to publish in opposition to Bournemouth on Tuesday. It was not a simple one, however a lethal finisher makes certain that’s a minimum of on track.
That miss value us 2 factors, in all probability. Take a look at the opposite 4 video games on this run and also you’ll see lots extra factors slipping from the striker’s toe.
He’s nonetheless obtained an enormous quantity to supply, however with no dramatic enchancment in his ending, he’s by no means going to hitch the quick checklist of elite strikers within the Chelsea historical past books.
