Today I’ve decided to focus on Chelsea, and in particular,
who I think should be leading their frontline this season. If they do end up
signing Wayne Rooney then he will undoubtedly be the main man at Stamford
Bridge given the qualities he has on the pitch and also because of the amount
they will end up having to fork out for. But as it stands, United are holding
their own and making it abundantly clear that he isn’t for sale, meaning that
as it stands, he won’t be wearing Blue on the opening game of the season. So
who then should be Chelsea’s main man instead?
For me it has to be Romelu Lukaku, the 20-year-old did more
than enough at West Bromwich Albion last season to show that he is capable of
scoring a hatful of goals in the Premier League and deserves the chance to
become Chelsea’s new main striker. With The Baggies he was able to create his
own chances due to him possessing the ability to bully opposition defenders and
his goals played a key part in helping the team finish as high as they did in
the league table.
Now back at Chelsea, Lukaku should still be allowed the
opportunity to take on the best that the Premier League can throw at him, but
as well as giving opposition defences a nightmare, he will now get the chance
to feed off a much higher standard of supply. Juan Mata led the Premier League
assists table last season, with Eden Hazard not too far behind him. With Mata
down the right, Hazard down the left, Oscar in the centre and Victor Moses and
new signing Andre Schurrle there as good backups, there should be no shortage
of goal opportunities this season at Stamford Bridge.
I also feel that Lukaku has earned the right to start ahead
of the likes of Demba Ba and Fernando Torres. Ba did prove himself to be very
useful at times last season when he joined from Newcastle United in January,
but really he is no more than a backup striker at the club. Torres also
improved in the second-half of last season, but Chelsea will never see a full
return on the £50 million they paid for him in 2011 and with the Spaniard
unlikely to be happy with a similar type of role to Ba this season, perhaps the
time has come for the club to look at moving him on.
Chelsea play their first game of the season against Hull
City on August 18th, but if pre-season form is also anything to go by, Lukaku
has earned the right to be in with a shout of starting that game after scoring
and impressing in several of the club’s friendlies in the past month. I’m sure
that he must be giving manager Jose Mourinho something of a selection headache,
but even if he doesn’t get the nod for the Hull match, it’s best not to forget
that he is still only 20 and he will surely still keep going from strength to
strength this season and beyond.
Andrew.
