Jose in forward thinking mode

14 April 2012

For a club that have spent over £200million on new players over the last 16 months and with seven top-class strikers on their books, Chelsea suffer from a surprising lack of firepower.

Jose Mourinho's side have scored just eight goals in eight Premiership games this season, a strike-rate that is unlikely to be improved by injuries to three of their four frontline forwards.

Didier Drogba is out for a month with a groin problem, Mateja Kezman has also been injured and doubts still linger over the fitness of Adrian Mutu.

Eidur Gudjohnsen, therefore, is Chelsea's only fit striker and Mourinho will be hoping that the Maltese Falcons go easy on the Icelandic international in Saturday's World Cup qualifier. The last thing the iceman needs is an icepack.

Chelsea's stretched strikeforce do not compare with Manchester United's awesome foursome of Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Alan Smith and Louis Saha and the myriad attacking talents that have scored 26 goals for Arsenal this season, but Mourinho is more interested in collecting points than plaudits. Chelsea's head coach has already shown his disdain for United's obsession to free-flowing football.

"Manchester have scored seven goals in two games but only got one point against Middlesbrough," Mourinho said pointedly last week - and finds the public's affection for Arsenal hard to take.

For someone who claims that he never relaxes, Mourinho is surprisingly sanguine on the subject of strikers.

He said: "I don't want 10 strikers. I'm very happy with the players I've got and it's just a shame they're all injured at once, but these things happen.

"It's the same as my left-backs, Wayne Bridge and Celestine Babayaro, who are both out at the same time. In the next 10 days most of them should be fit."

Mourinho is confident that Kezman and even the renegade Mutu will be fit to face Manchester City on Saturday week but has several other options if either of them suffer a setback.

Joe Cole excelled as a support striker in Sunday's 1-0 win over Liverpool, scoring the only goal of the game and creating several other chances - even if his defensive laxness offended Mourinho.

Damien Duff can also play in an advanced role behind one central striker. Cole, incidentally, is the only player other than Drogba to have scored more than one Premiership goal this season, suggesting that Chelsea are more reliant on the 6ft 2in African than they would care to admit.

Mourinho may wish to solve this problem by turning to another Cole, as Aston Villa's on-loan striker Carlton has been in impressive form this season, but under Premier League rules the England Under-21 striker cannot return to Stamford Bridge until the transfer window opens in January.

The same regulations rule out a permanent return for Mikael Forssell, who is being treated at Chelsea for a foot injury, while Hernan Crespo will spend the whole season at Inter Milan.

Not that Mourinho is worried. With a back four that has conceded just one Premiership goal this season he clearly believes that defence is the best form of attack.

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Jose in forward thinking mode

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