Does Chelsea have enough striking options?

AC Milan are believed to be holding talks about signing Spanish international Fernando Torres from Chelsea

According to Sky Sports, Italian giants AC Milan are in talks to sign Spanish striker Fernando Torres from Chelsea.

The Spaniard has endured a difficult career at Stamford Bridge since making a British-record breaking £50million move from Liverpool in January 2011.

Torres has scored just 20 Premier Leagues goals in 110 appearances for the Blues in the top-flight and now looks set to leave the club.

It begs the question should the Blues move to sign a new striker before the transfer deadline day on Monday?

Strikers

If Torres leaves that means that Chelsea would effectively have just two senior strikers in Diego Costa and returning hero Didier Drogba. That seems like a frightening prospect for any defence, but there may be problems with the Blues having such scarce cover.

The Blues do have highly-rated young striker Patrick Bamford in reserve. However, it seems like the youngster could be loaned out this season to gain valuable first team football.

Diego Costa is no doubt the Blues first choice and is a natural goalscorer. The Spanish international has netted twice in two Premier League appearances. If he stays fit then he is likely to continue scoring goals at a good rate.

However, last season he showed that even he is not impervious to injury and the injury he was carrying while at Atletico Madrid meant that he struggled at the World Cup in the land of his birth. If he got injured then the Blues options would be greatly restricted.

His main back-up is Chelsea legend Didier Drogba, who returned to the club this season on a free transfer. The 36-year-old still has a lot to offer, but if Costa was to suffer a serious injury then Drogba may struggle to fulfil the role of Chelsea’s main striker for any period of time.

Exits

Last season Chelsea’s trio of strikers Fernando Torres, Demba Ba and Samuel Eto’o struggled for goals. It seems that all three strikers could have departed Stamford Bridge before Monday’s transfer deadline.

Eto’o left as a free agent and joined Everton, while Demba Ba headed to Turkey to Besiktas. Even promising young striker Romelu Lukaku left the club, joining Everton in a massive £28million move. Whether any of those departed could have been retained is a big question.

Mixed

A number of the clubs who are supposedly Premier League title challengers are in a similar position when it comes to strikers. Arsenal have just lost French striker Olivier Giroud until the end of the year at the earliest. That leaves the Gunners slightly lacking in true striking options.

Liverpool has just added to their attacking options with Italian maverick Mario Balotelli to their squad with Daniel Sturridge and Rickie Lambert already in Brendan Rodgers squad. The Reds were considered to be lacking depth in attack after the exit of Luis Suarez.

Manchester City is considered to have the strongest strike-force with four international strikers currently on the clubs books. Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic have been first choice for the Citizens, with Sergio Aguero regaining full fitness from the bench and scoring twice in his cameo roles.

The men from Manchester also have Spaniard Alvaro Negredo, who is currently sidelined through injury. The Citizens definitely look like they have the strongest attacking options of the all title challengers.

Favourites

Chelsea are currently favourites for the Premier League title at odds of 5/4. The Blues do seem to have good strength in-depth throughout their squad, arguably second only to City in strength in-depth.

Their attacking options would be a worry if I was Chelsea fan.  They are looking good with a fully-fit and firing Diego Costa. If the worse should happen and the Brazilian-born striker did pick-up an injury then they could be lacking firepower, with only the aging Drogba to rely upon.

Torres may not have enjoyed the best of careers at Chelsea, but at least he provides Blues boss Jose Mourinho with another striking option.

I feel that if Chelsea do not strengthen their attack and sell Torres then they may live to regret their lack of forward options. Come May it may prove to be costly for the Blues.

Should Chelsea sign another striker ahead of deadline day?