Chelsea's goalscoring problem has hardly gone away despite putting three past Bournemouth and securing their Premier League status. That sentence alone demonstrates how poor their finishing has been, because on the whole it has been a conviction and quality issue.
When it comes to expected goals, a reliable enough metric over 34 games, Chelsea have scored 12 goals less than they would have been expected to. That would take them from being fourth lowest scorers to at least mid-table.
It is still far from good enough but the finishing issue has been a prolonged problem for the consistently underperforming attackers. It has been the difference between a frankly terrible season one that was still bad but not record breaking.
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Their loss of 12 goals by this metric is the most across the league both positive and negatively. They have acrued nearly seven points less than they might have. That would at least put them in ninth and within reach of the Europa League.
To improve their results in front of goal the club turned to Joao Felix. On a six month loan deal he cost around £2m per month. The £11m fee paid to Atletico Madrid is more than Chelsea recieved for Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan and he was ther for an entire season.
The effectiveness of this can be debated at length. The 23-year-old has the highest goals per90 out of any player in the squad this season. After his second half strike against Bournemouth, only two players have more in the league than his three.
It was for the unrealistic hope of winning the Champions League that he was signed but whether he has actually improved the team in that sense of not is far from clear. He has just 0.5xA (expected assists) in ten starts, for example.
He has shown glimpses of the quality player seen at the World Cup, though. It is the what-if around Felix that makes him such an intriguing player. Chelsea will need more than that, though and reports suggest that they are far from convinced he is worth the $110.9m (£88m) price tag Atletico Madrid have on him.
The Evening Standard write that instead of paying the full price, Chelsea could agree to another loan in order to land the attacker for another season, this time paying $20m (£16m) for the year. Given the financial pressure, need to clear out a host of failed stars across the field and attacking uncertainty for Felix, it is a deal that will need funding somehow.
That could come from an easier source than was first obvious. Chelsea are not only planning to sell Hakim Ziyech from the frontline but would also welcome bids for Kai Havertz and Raheem Sterling. Callum Hudson-Odoi is likely to be available for a move, as is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Not all of those are as easily sellable as Christian Pulisic. The 24-year-old has top-level experience and proof of form patches to match some of the global stars, too. As the face of USMNT football he is also a hugely marketable player. The good news for Chelsea and for Pulisic is that it won't take all that much to reach an amicable split.
With just one year left on his contract, Pulisic has nearly fully got his book worth at Chelsea. This effectively means that when it comes to finances being submitted, Chelsea only have $15.1m (£12m) of value to get from Pulisic. He is, despite his position at Chelsea, worth at least double that and then some.
What it does mean is that Chelsea shouldn't find themselves in a position whereby they are waiting for an acceptable offer for Pulisic. It's a situation they have been left waiting in too many times before and Todd Boehly has so far already shown that he is able to put pride to one side and sell for a middling offer.
If the same happens with Pulisic then it makes the loan fee easier to stomach for Felix and helps everyone to advance.
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