Have Chelsea got enough forward options to challenge on all fronts?

Chelsea has big ambitions this season. Last season they ended the campaign as European champions, somehow.

This season the Blues have started their campaign off in decent style, if you take away the horrible Super Cup defeat by Atletico.

Options

Blues boss Roberto Di Matteo has good midfield options, but it seems that the Italian spent his whole transfer kitty on attacking midfielders and didn’t leave any money for an alternative option to Fernando Torres.

Lone

Chelsea’s dearth of strikers is very obvious at the moment. The only senior strikers the club currently possess are Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge. With all due respect to Sturridge he is not quite at the level that Chelsea will need this season.

There have even been question marks over whether Torres is at the level Chelsea need this season. To be fair to the Spaniard he has started the season off in decent form and in the last few months has looked more like the Torres of old.

However, he still isn’t back to his former brilliant best and that could provide Chelsea with a problem. The attacking midfielders will contribute with goals, but what if Torres’ goals start to dry up?

It’s not a scenario that is completely unbelievable. For much of last season Torres couldn’t hit a cow’s backside with a banjo. The 28 year-old just seemed to go to pieces in front of goal and he became the laughing stock of the Premier League.

Thankfully for Chelsea’s club record signing his form started to recover towards the end of last season and that run continued into Euro 2012, where he managed to score three goals.

Torres was obviously suffering from some sort of mental block when he was put in the position to score a goal. He seems to be recovering from that now, but what if the goals started to dry up again or he was injured?

Backup

Di Matteo’s options would be to replace Torres with Daniel Sturridge or play winger Victor Moses up front. I have always liked Sturridge’s confidence, but when he first broke into first team football at Manchester City it was mistaken for arrogance.

Sturridge has since admitted that in his younger days he acted like a bit of an idiot and that he has matured since his City days. At the start of last season it looked like Sturridge was finally making the breakthrough into the Chelsea first eleven.

However, it was on the flanks of the attack, rather than as a central striker. When Andre Villas-Boas was given the boot by the Blues Sturridge was consigned to the bench for much of the remainder of the season.

The England international hasn’t got a particularly impressive goal scoring record either. He has found the net just three times in 29 appearances for the European champions since Christmas.

I just can’t see him being capable of replacing Torres should he have a lapse in confidence or form later on in the season. Moses has also spent most of his Premier League career playing on the wing, but even then eight goals in 74 top flight appearances is an awful record.

Possibility

I have heard pundits and fans alike discussing the possibility of Atletico Madrid goal machine Radamel Falcao joining in January, and I don’t think that’s hundreds millions miles from the truth.

If Chelsea is still in the title race by January I can see Blues owner Roman Abramovich opening his cheque book to sign the Colombian international.

Falcao is one of the best number nines around in world football at the moment and finished third in the La Liga scoring charts last season, the only players to better his scoring feat were superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Unlikely

I don’t think Chelsea have much chance of winning the Premier League and retaining their European crown with their current crop of strikers. Torres will go through a dip in form, or even get tired at some point and his replacements don’t offer enough to replace him.

Chelsea may currently be sitting at the top of the Premier League table, but I bet Blues boss Roberto Di Matteo is praying that Torres stays fit and in form. If he doesn’t then Chelsea will be off the pace both at home and abroad and it will probably cost the Italian his job.

Have Chelsea got enough quality strikers to compete at home and abroad?