The transfer talk has been dominated by what and who Chelsea needs. With Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen leaving and possibly Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso to follow, Chelsea’s most pressing need is to buy some new defenders.
However, much of the focus has been on a striker to replace Romelu Lukaku, who is almost certain to join Inter Milan on loan this week. Chelsea has been strongly linked with Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling and bar the highly unlikely rumour-fuelled transfers of Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar. Few direct replacements for Lukaku seem to be on the shopping list.
If Chelsea does sign Sterling and not a more like-for-like replacement in the form of a more traditional Number 9, it may give us some insight into where Thomas Tuchel sees the attack going. And that would appear to be a more effective version of the fluid front three, like that deployed by Liverpool and Man City.
READ MORE: Chelsea goalkeeper signs new deal and agrees loan as Blues continue transfer window activity
Perhaps the days of the ‘big number 9’ are coming to an end, although Erland Haaland may have something to say about that, in truth, there are very few world-class strikers available now.
Throughout Chelsea’s trials and tribulations up front over the last couple of seasons, it seemed to me that the issue of Chelsea’s attacking players not being able to finish was not the only problem.
There seemed to be no partnerships upfront. Largely due to injury, Covid, loss of form and the need to rotate due to fatigue, Tuchel rarely got a chance to see which partnerships would work. Timo Werner and Kai Havertz; Mason Mount and Havertz or any combination between Werner, Havertz, Mount, Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech and Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Lukaku with anyone.
There was perhaps, another area which failed to function when it came to either creating or scoring goals. If one takes Chelsea’s midfield last season to be Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante, then excluding Jorginho’s nine goals from penalties, Chelsea’s midfield contributed just four goals and 15 assists between them. If you add Reece James, Ben Chilwell and Marcos Alonso, who arguably played much of the time in the midfield as wing-backs, then we have another 14 goals and 16 assists to add. However, Reece James contributed six goals and ten assists on his own.
Whichever way you look at it, there appears to be a shortage of creativity, goals and assists coming from Chelsea’s midfield, and if that is the case, it begs the question as to why Chelsea are not searching high and low for a goal-scoring, creative midfielder.
They may, of course, be counting on Connor Gallagher to be that man next season, but even though Gallagher’s performances for Crystal Palace were highly impressive last season, becoming Chelsea’s main creative and goal-scoring midfielder in his first full season for the club might be a very big ask.
If not Gallagher, then who? Chelsea either needs to find a partnership (or partnerships) upfront or find a midfielder who can both unlock defences and supply the front three or get on the scoresheet themselves. A continuation of last season’s iniquity will be intolerable for both Tuchel and supporters alike, not to mention the negative impact it will have on Chelsea’s capability to loft trophies next season.
Chelsea has had a long history of goalscoring partnerships, whether in attack or between midfield and attack. One of the most effective was Kerry Dixon and David Speedie in the 1980s. The relationship got off to a rocky start. Dixon was one of five new arrivals in the summer of 1983, while Speedie signed a year earlier.
Dixon’s Chelsea career got off to a blistering start with 14 goals in his first 11 matches. He kept Speedie out of the side, and when they finally played together in the same line-up, they didn’t gel at all. In fact, it got so bad that they came to blows in an almighty row after the 1-0 defeat at home to Manchester City on December 3rd, 1983.
Miraculously this seemed to clear the air between them, and they went on to become arguably Chelsea’s most successful partnership up front, with a combined 169 goals in their four seasons together.
Like Dixon and Speedie, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Eidur Gudjohnsen also had completely different playing styles but found a way to make it work. In their four years together, they combined to score 52 goals in 144 appearances and 146 goals between them in that period. In the 2001/02 season, Hasselbaink’s 29 goals and Gudjohnsen’s 26 goals reminded many supporters of the combined potency of Dixon and Speedie.
But the most successful goalscoring and assisting partnership for Chelsea, and indeed in Premier League history until broken by Harry Kane and Son last season, is, of course, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba. These two Chelsea legends combined to score a total of 36 Premier League goals, with Lampard teeing up Drogba 24 times and Drogba returning the favour 12 times. They played together 304 times, and in their eight seasons together, Lampard scored 157 goals and Drogba 156.
Another great midfielder and striker partnership for Chelsea occurred soon after the era of Lampard and Drogba, with Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa. They both made their debut away to Burnley in 2014 under Antonio Conte and hit it off right away, with Fabregas setting up Costa for a sublime goal. This form continued with Costa scoring seven goals in his first four games and Fabregas getting an assist in each.
Costa and Fabregas played 105 times together for Chelsea, with Costa scoring an impressive 59 goals in that time, many assisted by Fabregas, who seemed to know telepathically where to put the ball in the right place for him.
Perhaps there is another player we should mention, who didn’t need a partnership to create and score, and that is Eden Hazard. Hazard is arguably the most talented player ever to play for Chelsea, scoring 110 goals in seven seasons at the club, and in truth, his talent warranted far more than that. He didn’t really have to worry about providing assists for anyone else, although he did plenty of that. If the mood took him, he would simply drop a shoulder, beat a man and create the space for himself to score.
Sadly, players of Hazard’s ability who can unlock a defence on their own and finish with aplomb are few and far between. One wonders if Chelsea has suffered since he departed to Real Madrid, so dependent on him they had become and furthermore, Hazard’s boots, although small in size, were massive to fill in stature. A degree of sympathy goes out to the likes of Christian Pulisic on that score.
Chelsea is highly unlikely to be able to recruit another Frank Lampard or Eden Hazard this summer, but if they want to sort the goalscoring and finishing out, they will do well to address the creativity and goalscoring in midfield as well as the lack of it upfront. Maybe the key that will unlock that particular door will come in the form of productive partnerships up front and between midfield and attack.
READ NEXT:
Todd Boehly takes major step to seal Raheem Sterling transfer and complete first Chelsea signing
Raheem Sterling bid, Romelu Lukaku medical - Chelsea summer transfer window state of play
West Ham's transfer stance on Declan Rice revealed as Chelsea sent clear warning
Todd Boehly already has Nathan Ake Chelsea alternative after £45m Marina Granovskaia regret
