Chelsea’s only in form striker? Daniel Sturridge
As Chelsea continue to struggle, first falling out of the title race and now out of Europe, their lack of ability to score important goals seems to be at the head of their problems. If only they had spent close to £90 million on a three pronged strike force which has over 224 caps between them and includes a World Cup winner.
Now as they search for a good end to a season which started with such promise, an in form goal scorer would be more precious now than ever. But as £50 million worth of misfiring matador looks to break his duck in blue, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka have only got one goal each in the league since Fernando Torres’ arrival at Stamford Bridge.
However, one striker signed onto Chelsea’s books is in the middle of a goal scoring purple patch. Unfortunately for Carlo Ancelotti, he is, until the end of the season at least, plying his trade up at the Reebok Stadium. As the world class trio struggle to hit top form, a 21 year old born in the midlands and groomed in the Manchester is firing in the goals for Owen Coyle’s Bolton Wanderers.
Since Torres’ arrival forced him out of Stamford Bridge and up north to join the Trotters push to sustain a top half finish, young Daniel Sturridge hasn’t looked back. His 6 goals in just 8 Premier League games prove that if given a platform to perform, Britain’s young players can make a serious impact. A man of the match showing against West Ham was pure class as his movement and natural pace caused constant problems for the away team’s defence.
When Ancelotti sent Sturridge off to work under Coyle for a few months, he probably hoped for something similar to the improvement that Jack Wilshere has shown after toughening up both mentally and physically from his spell at Bolton during the latter stages of last season. But not in anybody’s wildest dreams would he have had the immediate impact to score half a dozen goals in under three months.
For now Chelsea will have to get by while trying to figure out how to combine Torres, Drogba and Anelka, while Sturridge continues to flourish thanks to first team opportunities. But what of next season. Will Sturridge be sent on loan again so that he can fire in more goals for a team that isn’t Chelsea? Maybe Chelsea will move on Drogba or Anelka so that they can have one last big money move to make room for the young English striker. Will Abramovich tire of his latest play thing and cut his losses with Torres to leave the way clear for Sturridge to lead the club to glory.
Whatever the case it seems that ‘Danny’ Sturridge will have to be given a chance at Chelsea or move on to pastures new because, at least on current form, he is too good to rot in the reserves while big money buys fail to perform.
