What’s that, is it a light at the end of the tunnel? Chelsea are making headway and the most interesting point of the Blues project lies in the giddy attacking talent at Enzo Maresca‘s disposal.
Cole Palmer is the centrepiece of course but an overreliance on his talent from last season has been tempered. Now, there is some exciting new talent to diversify the attacking efforts.
Of course, there are a couple of resurgent stars that have actually been on the books for over a year now. Indeed, the closed qualities of Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku are beginning to unfurl.
Chelsea’s current strikers
Chelsea signed Jackson from Villarreal last summer, completing a deal in excess of his £30m release clause. Nkunku arrived earlier in the summer in a £52m transfer, with a move actually being agreed with RB Leipzig some time before, in a gentlemanly fashion.
Nkunku’s maiden year on English shores was not so much affected as ravaged by injuries. The France international scored three times in the Premier League last year but started only twice.
He’s scored three goals from six matches under Maresca though, notably bagging the winner against Bournemouth last weekend. He’s only started three times and looks like he could be a real menace throughout the campaign.
Jackson, aged only 23, had greater success, avoiding any annoying layoffs to post 17 goals from 44 matches, albeit missing a staggering 24 big chances in the Premier League last term, scoring 14 goals.
This season, the rough diamond has two goals and an assist from five matches. His total Chelsea tally stands at 19 strikes, whereas his French counterpart has just six goals to his name.
Both could end the striker’s curse at Stamford Bridge. So many talented centre-forwards have seen their time in west London prove to be a footnote in the background of an otherwise impressive career, with one such man being Alvaro Morata.
He’s certainly enjoyed a resurgence, having actually outscored the aforespoken forwards since they arrived at Chelsea.
Alvaro Morata’s resurgence after leaving Chelsea
Chelsea signed Morata for – wait for it – a then club-record £60m fee in 2017 under Antonio Conte, bringing the Spaniard in from Real Madrid after his relatively prolific stint with the European heavyweights.
It went wrong. Morata took on the rather cumbersome weight of essaying to replace Diego Costa at Chelsea and though starting brilliantly, with nine goals from just 14 appearances, he ended the season with 15 from 44 fixtures.
He was jettisoned back off to the Spanish capital at the midpoint of his second year, this time signing for Atletico Madrid in what would become the most nomadic of wandering careers. After scoring 24 goals from 72 matches as a Blue, he can hardly be considered a success.
Alvara Morata: Post-Chelsea Career Stats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Season | Club | Apps | Goals | Assists |
24/25 | AC Milan | 2 | 1 | 0 |
23/24 | Atletico Madrid | 48 | 21 | 5 |
22/23 | Atletico Madrid | 45 | 15 | 3 |
21/22 | Juventus | 48 | 12 | 9 |
20/21 | Juventus | 44 | 20 | 12 |
19/20 | Atletico Madrid | 44 | 16 | 5 |
18/19 | Atletico Madrid | 17 | 6 | 1 |
Stats via Transfermarkt | ||||
He’s been comparatively prolific, with the newly-signed AC Milan star’s 22-goal haul since the start of last season surpassing the Chelsea totals of both Jackson and Nkunku.
Morata, who earned a jaw-dropping £170k per week at Chelsea, is a good striker – he spearheaded Spain’s Euro 2024 triumph – and has even been rather generously claimed to be “on par with Erling Haaland” by Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone.
Urr, maybe not, but he was still a major miss for Chelsea and has illustriously resurrected his career since leaving, even outscoring Jackson last term for good measure.
