At first glance, it may appear that Chelsea have come off the worst in this summer’s striker merry-go-round.
Arsenal struck first in acquiring Alexandre Lacazette, a France international they’ve been chasing for the last three summers, for a club-record fee after recording his most potent campaign to date for Lyon, whilst Manchester United unexpectedly muscled in on Chelsea’s much-reported pursuit to seal the services of Romelu Lukaku, the Premier League’s second-top scorer last season, for an eye-watering £75million.
Accordingly, Chelsea had to settle for second best, a lesser alternative lower down their shopping list, spending £60million on a centre-forward in Alvaro Morata who has netted just 58 goals across all competitions since emerging from Real Madrid’s Castilla string in 2012. Neither Juventus nor Los Blancos could find room for Morata in their starting XIs and since his Segunda Division days in Spain, the 24-year-old has reached double figures during just one of four full league campaigns.
He’s now expected to fill the void of Diego Costa whose Premier League strike-rate stands at better than one-in-two, finishing up as Chelsea’s top scorer for their last two title wins as well as the infamously disastrous campaign in between, and whose ability to bring others into the game by holding up the ball has been as important as his goals over the last three years. A huge shadow to step into for a striker who has never been a guaranteed starter throughout his career to date.
But Chelsea’s strike-force isn’t composed of just one man. Backing up the Spain international next season will be Michy Batshuayi, a promising young striker who scored the goal that put Chelsea over the line in last season’s title race and who convinced the future champions to splash out over £30million on his services the summer prior.
Batshuayi may have spent much of last season on the fringes of Antonio Conte’s plans, clocking up just 239 minutes of top-flight action in total, but he’s a talented finisher and now has the benefit of a year to settle in the Premier League. That, in addition to five goals in pre-season already, suggests a much brighter 2017/18 ahead.
And when Batshuayi’s contributions from last season are combined with Morata’s, there is an incredibly notable, curious and promising trend – the pure efficiency of both front-men during campaigns in which their game-time was severely restricted to the point it equated to just over 17 top flight appearances.
Indeed, from 1566 minutes of league action combined, Morata and Batshuayi produced 20 goals and five assists, working out at one goal or assist per 65.6 minutes of play – a far greater return than the conventional strike options the rest of the managers in the top six will have at their disposal next season. Likewise, across all competitions, Batshuayi and Morata produced eight game-winning goals; that’s one game-winner per 3.6 nets across all competitions and one every 333 minutes of play.
Minutes-per-goal-contribution isn’t the only area where Chelsea’s strike duo rule supreme over their top six counter-parts either. Although only Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino and Divock Origi produced less goals overall, whilst Batshuayi and Morata produced the least assists, they actually ranked the best for chances created per assist and second for shots per goal, only trumped by Arsenal’s Lacazette and Olivier Giroud. Likewise, their shot accuracy stands at 68%, meaning their shots made the goalkeeper work 6% more than their closest competitors, Arsenal again, and a whopping 10% more than United’s Lukaku and Marcus Rashford.
That efficiency would be of benefit to any side in next season’s title race, but it suits Chelsea particularly well. Although there has been no definitive playing style throughout the Roman Abramovich era, Chelsea have always been at their best when employing an organised, structured brand of football that doesn’t allow games to become stretched.
They win matches with shrewdness, game-management, counter-attacks and making chances count, which is exactly what happened last season as Conte’s side produced the second-most goals in the league from only the fifth-most shots, whilst completing the most dribbles and scoring the most goals on the break – an impressive seven.
Those returns also hint at the quality of Batshuayi and Morata’s shots and chances created being superior to those of their top six counterparts, but as with every set of statistics there is an inevitable caveat to consider; because they were bench options on the most part for title-winning sides last season (in fact both strikers made more substitute appearances than starts) they firstly were often brought on in accommodating circumstances when the opposition defence was already on its last legs and secondly simply had to take the opportunities that came their way, or else face demotion to the reserves.
Consequentially, both strikers face the same challenge next – transforming themselves from ruthlessly efficient options from the bench into equally effective front-men when starting. It’s a completely different game and there are countless examples of attacking players who’ve struggled to have the same impact from the opening whistle – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Edin Dzeko and Theo Walcott particularly coming to mind.
But it’s clear from last season that Batshuayi and Morata both have the talent and the firepower to be incredibly efficient strikers, capable of still contributing to their teams even when game-time is minimal and service is limited.
Both strikers also have an impressive knack for scoring important goals; alongside Batshuayi’s title-winner at the Hawthorns last season, Morata’s career has already seen him score in the semi-finals and the finals of the Coppa Italia and the Champions League, whilst netting thrice for Spain at last summer’s European Championship.
If Conte can adequately oversee those transitions from bench options to starting strikers whilst maintaining a similar level of efficiency from both, Chelsea’s strike-force may well emerge as the best in the league by the end of next season.