With Jose Mourinho restructuring the Chelsea team inside out, we are set to find quite a number of new faces for the upcoming season. While the midfield and even the defence of the London club is looking frightening perhaps the same cannot be said of their attack. While it was a really good piece of business getting Diego Costa, the other strikers in the Chelsea squad does not exactly fill anyone with fear. Also we must remember that this will be Diego Costa’s first season in the Premier League and as everyone knows the first season for a foreign player arriving in the Premier League should be written off as a transition season. Remember how Soldado did for Tottenham Hotspur in his first season in the Premier League last season? Now that Demba Ba has left Chelsea the eternal debate going on in every Chelsea fan’s mind is whether they should retain Romelu Lukaku for the season or should they just go ahead with Diego Costa and Fernando Torres. We at Soccersouls will try to reason why Chelsea needs Romelu Lukaku to stay along with Diego Costa and Fernando Torres especially now that Demba Ba has left.
With Diego Costa set to be the main man in the attack for Chelsea, Fernando Torres and Romelu Lukaku will mostly be playing the role of back ups. Also given that this is Diego Costa’s first season in English football, it is even more crucial that Chelsea has atleast two capable back ups for Diego Costa. Also given how a single long term injury is enough to derail any club’s season (take Arsenal for example) it would be prudent for Chelsea to retain Romelu Lukaku this season along with Fernando Torres. Also given how FFP is an issue it is better for Chelsea to keep faith in Lukaku, who has had two very good seasons in the Premier League on loan, rather than spending on another striker who will essentially be a back up for Diego Costa.
Now, let us have a look at the statistics to see whether Romelu Lukaku is indeed good enough to play for Chelsea. Having experienced the rigours of the Premier League on loan, having played for West Brom and Everton is successive seasons, and being quite successful during that period is he finally ready for the step up? Last season Romelu Lukaku scored 15 goals in 31 appearances in the Premier League which makes it almost 1 goal in every two matches played which is brilliant returns given he played for a team like Everton last season. In comparison Fernando Torres scored a sum total of 5 goals in the Premier League from a total of 28 appearances (although to be fair on the Spaniard, a lot of those appearances were from the bench). Also according to Squawka, Romelu Lukaku has a shot accuracy of 63% which is much superior to Fernando Torres’ shot accuracy of 49%. Also given how direct and physical Lukaku is, this will be perfect learning experience for him as well. At the moment Chelsea cannot afford to let go of Romelu Lukaku on loan or otherwise.