I know the man who can revive Chelsea

THE title challenge won’t happen this year. For all that the early signs under Maurizio Sarri were good, Chelsea are going to see the three teams ahead of them disappear into the distance.

But after watching their 0-0 draw with Southampton earlier this week, I have concerns about whether they will mount a proper title challenge next season, too.

My worry stems from one revealing number in the table.

Chelsea have scored the fewest goals of the top six sides. A return of 38 from 21 matches isn’t enough to win you a title, no matter how good your defence is. The one thing you need is someone to score you 30 goals and they do not have a player er like Harry Kane, Mo o Salah or Sergio Aguero.

Not so long ago, they did. Diego Costa would absolutely transform Chelsea’s fortunes and, if it was down n to me, I’d break the he bank to re-sign him. m.

You can talk about Gonzalo Higuain or Karim Benzema, but I think Costa would be the one to take Chelsea where they want to be.

There was something about the way Costa’s career finished at Stamford Bridge that doesn’t sit right. I know there were huge problems between him and Antonio Conte, but even so, it seemed like they didn’t put up any kind of fight to keep him.

Costa is a striker with everything and someone I used to study at great length.

Yes, he is a good bit younger than me, but in this profession you can never stop learning and I would watch footage of him — and Kane, for that matter — to see how it could help me. Some might not like his aggressive style but to see him play is compelling.

Ryan Shawcross, my team-mate at Stoke, said he used to love facing Costa as he knew from the first minute it would be a fight and he would be taken to the limits physically. Costa gave it, but he could also take it.

He could also score. When Chelsea won the title in 2015 under Jose Mourinho, Costa was formidable. He was even better in 2017 when Conte turned them into champions again.

Had he been available to Sarri for 2019, who knows what might have happened?

Brilliant strikers don’t tend to come along too often at Stamford Bridge. If you think about it, the namnames that should come to your mind are PetPeter Osgood, Kerry DiDixon and, most rerecently, Didier DDrogba. Drogba was sensational, one of the best strikers to play in the Premier League. HeH was like a oneman maoneman army at times in those Chelsea-Liverpool games, going back 15 yearsyears. Of all the signings made to establish Chelsea in the Roman Abramovich era, none had more influence than Drogba.

Yet Chelsea, I believe, are synonymous with flair players, those who provide craft and guile and goals.

Eden Hazard is doing it for them now, following in the footsteps of Arjen Robben, Damien Duff, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Gianfranco Zola.

In years to come, Christian Pulisic, their new signing, could be held in the same esteem.

I have seen a lot of Pulisic and he’s impressed me for a long

time. Chelsea’s business to get him signed up for next season already looks smart.

What they need more than anything, however, is the focal point that Drogba, for example, provided. I like Olivier Giroud, and Alvaro Morata is a forward with great technical gifts, but it just does not seem to be happening for him in England. I’m not sure it is going to, either.

For some players, it just doesn’t work in the Premier League.

Morata has had some good moments, but not the kind you would expect from someone who arrived for such a big price and it was revealing yesterday to hear Zola — who is now Sarri’s assistant — admit that the Spaniard is suffering a crisis of confidence.

There is nothing a striker can experience that is worse — trust me, I know — but he has to keep working.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned Callum Wilson, who is doing so well for Bournemouth, as having the potential to be a Chelsea player, but whether they actually press ahead and give him the opportunity remains to be seen. Given time, he could flourish. If Chelsea want to get back to the top of the table, though, they need an individual who can make the difference.

Hazard is brilliant but there continue to be doubts about his long-term future and, regardless, he is not a centre forward.

Sarri needs one for his team to progress. Costa might be happy in Madrid, but if the only reason he went to Spain was Conte, hasn’t that problem been solved?

All the top teams have a 30-goal assassin. Chelsea need one now more than ever.