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Former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has criticised the club for failing to strengthen in two areas while they had the chance in the January transfer window.
Chelsea surpassed expectations across an excellent start to the season under a new head coach in Enzo Maresca, suffering just two league defeats heading into the Christmas period.
But the west London giants have managed just three wins from their last nine games in all competitions and now sit fourth in the English top flight, 13 points adrift of leaders Liverpool.
The concerning drop-off intensified calls amongst Chelsea’s fanbase for reinforcements to be brought in over the winter, with both ends of the pitch seemingly in need of freshening up.
Robert Sanchez sits joint-top of the list of Premier League goalkeepers with the most mistakes leading to goals this term and major questions have been raised surrounding his place between the sticks.
In attack, Nicolas Jackson has experienced a worrying decline in form and appears to be badly struggling for confidence in front of goal, failing to hit the target in his last eight matches in all competitions.
‘As a striker, if you haven’t scored in eight, that is massive,’ Obi Mikel said on The Obi One Podcast.
‘But it’s not just Nicolas. Again, it’s good to see that Pedro Neto came in, that’s what we’re crying out for.
‘It’s not just Nicolas that needs to be chipping in with the goals. We need goals from [Noni] Madueke, we need goals from Pedro Neto, we need goals from [Jadon] Sancho, not just Nicolas.
‘But as the main man, as the top striker, no goals in eight is not good enough.’
Maresca replaced Jackson in only the 52nd minute of Chelsea’s comeback win over West Ham on Monday, with Marc Guiu brought on in his place at Stamford Bridge.
According to Obi Mikel, Guiu is a player with great potential – but not who Chelsea should be relying on to score important goals in big games at this stage.
‘Now we’re looking at that and the manager has to hook him off. Who does he bring in? An 18-year-old Marc Guiu,’ he added.
‘He’s very young, a talented player and has got potential. But he’s not the striker that you bring in when you need goals, when you need to win games.
‘For me, that’s something we’re crying out for. We need another top striker.
‘The window is shut, unfortunately, and now we can’t bring anyone in. We didn’t bring in a striker, we didn’t bring in a goalkeeper.
‘That’s another window shut without us making the signings we think are going to help us finish in the top four.’
After enjoying an impressive start to life at Chelsea, Jadon Sancho’s form has dropped of a cliff, with the England forward largely anonymous before being hooked on Monday night.
Obi Mikel has been hugely disappointed by Sancho’s recent displays and hopes to see the winger rediscover his mojo once again.
‘He came into the club and we were all singing his praises because of how well he started,’ the two-time Premier League winner continued.
‘I was one of the people saying, “Listen, if we can get Jadon through the door it’s going to be a massive boost for us”, and he came in and showed why I wanted him to come to the club.
‘He performed well the first couple of games, the first few games he showed why he should be at the football club. He was getting the ball, he was taking people on, he was running at defenders, he was creating chances.
‘But for the past few games we haven’t seen that. Since December, period, we haven’t seen anything from Jadon.
‘He can’t relax and think, “I’ve come into the football club, I’ve played a few good games and now I can relax”… no, you can’t relax!
‘You did it before at Manchester United and now you’ve got an opportunity to come in at Chelsea. You started well when you came in and relax. No, you have to continue, you have continue performing the way you started, Jadon.
‘Get back to that way of getting the ball, taking defenders on, creating chances. We don’t see that anymore.’
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