Rio Ferdinand maintains that Chelsea's issues will persist without a recognised striker in their ranks.
The Blues have struggled in recent months, with their latest defeat coming in the Champions League at Borussia Dortmund. It means Graham Potter's side have won just two of their last 14 games despite their dominance in Germany on Wednesday night.
Chelsea will need to overturn their Champions League tie when the two sides meet in west London, but the Blues have failed to score twice in a match since November, which underlines their issue. Over £500m has been spent on new players at Stamford Bridge - £323m of it in January - but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the only forward to be added following his switch from Barcelona in the summer.
Already though the former Arsenal man has fallen out of favour. He's been axed from the Champions League squad to make room for their January signings and is widely expected to move on in the summer, when Christopher Nkunku will arrive from the Bundesliga.
For now though their problems in the final third continue and Ferdinand puts that down to their recruitment decisions. He said on BT Sport: "They haven’t got a No.9 in this team. They spent all that money in the last two transfer windows and didn’t get an out-and-out No.9. That’s the problem.
"Long term, I think he’ll go and get that. They’re doing everything up to that point really, really well. The way the team’s been able to pass the ball through the lines and get into those really good areas. But again, they got undone by a clinical bit of finishing which they didn’t have in their own team."
In the Premier League Chelsea have scored just 23 times - by far the lowest in the top half. Their top scorer in the league is Kai Havertz, but the German playmaker has just five to his name. The Blues are by no means short of quality, but they've been unable to convert it into goals.
Potter, as has been the case in recent matches, was impressed with the chances created by his side in Germany, but bemoaned their execution. "Overall, we were pleased with the performance for big parts of the game," he stated. "It is complicated away from home in the Champions League, in a hostile environment against a team that's in a good moment. It was an even first half, we managed the game quite well with good opportunities to counter-attack and we hit the bar.
"Then in the second half apart from the one decisive action where we didn't do well enough, we were the dominant, better team and created some good chances. We needed a little bit of luck maybe and a little bit of final execution. We deserved a goal but have to keep going. It's half-time. It's a tight tie. We look forward to Stamford Bridge."
