Lukaku, Havertz, Werner, Ziyech, Pulisic. What does that say to you about Chelsea attackers last season? We’re bad at buying attackers? That’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is, we like buying new attackers, let’s buy some more of them.
That quintet of forwards was signed for roughly £313m between them. So let’s break down Chelsea’s statistical attacking leaders last season. The top scorer? That was Mason Mount. Top assist provider – that was Mount too. Most shots – erm… Mount. Most shots on target? Mount. Most shots from inside the penalty area and most chances created – you know where this is going. Chelsea really did spend a third of a billion pounds on players who were outperformed by an academy graduate by almost every measure.
Enter Raheem Sterling, stage left, right and centre. Chelsea have had a clearout this summer, humble pie awkwardly delivered from whence it came. Romelu Lukaku has been loaned to Inter, Timo Werner sold to RB Leipzig. The stash is running so low that Armando Broja came off the bench against Everton. “Oh yeah,” Premier League supporters presumably thought. “He’s back there isn’t he”.
Sterling is a fascinating signing. On the one hand, elite Premier League clubs rarely get a chance to sign high-class forward from their rivals and so Sterling needs no time to learn a new league. The last attacking player Chelsea signed from another English club was Loic Remy from QPR in 2014. The last attackers to leave one Big Six club for another before this summer were Willian, Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Let’s try and forget about those for now.
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Crazy schedule caused by Qatar's World Cup has made the EFL Cup less relevant than ever11 August, 2022And Sterling is – prepare for detailed analysis – very, very good. His next Premier League goal will take him into the top 25 all-time goalscorers in Premier League history. His next England appearance will take him into the national team’s 20 highest-capped players and he is two goals away from their top 20 goalscorers too. Sterling is still only 27.
But how much quality Sterling has is only part of this issue. Chelsea have long been the elite Premier League exception, a goalscoring Bermuda Triangle. Since 2010, players have scored more than 22 goals in all competitions in a single season for Manchester City on 17 occasions. In the Big Six, next come Liverpool with 11, then Tottenham (10), Manchester United (seven) and Arsenal (six). Chelsea haven’t had a single one over that period.
It has clearly not been a barrier to success – over that period Chelsea have won two league titles, two Champions Leagues, two Europa League and three domestic cups. But then Chelsea’s actions give the game away: their constant recruitment suggests a desperation to find an answer. In the Premier League, a prolific goalscorer acts as a shortcut and an emergency service and Thomas Tuchel would clearly love one.
Over the last six years, six different players have started more games as the centre forward during a league season for Chelsea than any other: Timo Werner in 2021-22, Kai Havertz in 2020-21, Tammy Abraham in 2019-20, Gonzalo Higuain in 2018-19 (no really), Alvaro Morata in 2017-18 and Diego Costa in 2016-17.
That list includes a myriad of different physical profiles, age ranges, styles and success rates. But for one reason or another, Chelsea quickly moved on from each of them. We’re now at the stage where Tuchel, tongue inserted slightly in cheek, admits that no Chelsea players particularly wanted to wear the No 9 shirt this season because it appears cursed. If this is the penance you must pay for giving it to Khalid Boulahrouz in 2006 you have to say: fair cop.
Sterling is another type again, converted winger into goalscoring poacher. But he also flourished in a very specific role at Manchester City: lots of touches in the opposition area, late runs into the six-yard box when the ball was pulled back across goal. The problems began (although did not end) with Lukaku when Tuchel tried to change the role in which he had recently been successful. The slight worry is that the same will happen with Sterling, smoothing the rough edges that made him so dangerous and converting him into just a fine wide forward.
But then perhaps therein lies the answer. Chelsea spent so long, and so much money, buying centre forwards without success, then why not embrace their inability to solve the issue? Rather than finding the perfect goalscoring striker, accept that one might not exist for them and instead use a committee of attacking midfielders and wide forwards to whisk up a storm. It might just work. Either that or they’ll sign Cristiano Ronaldo on deadline day.
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