Stats show Chelsea may have bought the wrong striker with January move possible

Chelsea have already got one striker arrival lined up for the future. But is he the right one?

Emanuel Emegha has signed up to come from our sister club Strasbourg in the summer, and could arrive sooner. There’s a lot of talk about that transfer being moved up to January with Liam Delap’s hamstring problem stripping our first team options back.

Panichelli looking even brighter than Emegha

Emmanuel Emegha joins Chelsea!

But increasingly the question has to be asked – did we sign the right Strasbourg striker? Emegha has been carrying an injury this season, so has had limited minutes.

His place has been taken by Joaquin Panichelli, who has been tearing up like 1 with 5 goals in 6 starts.

His all round stats are really impressive:

Here are Emegha’s equivalent stats:

Clearly the sample size isn’t the same – Panichelli has played more than twice as much. But it will be very interesting to compare their career trajectory now, especially with Emegha looking increasingly likely to join Chelsea in January.

Strasbourg already have their replacement, clearly. But the stats for both are amazing – they’re averaging 1 G/A per game each, and getting a lot of shots off. Both are raw, but with tons of potential.

Chelsea could end up with both Strasbourg scorers

Panichelli is a different type of striker of course, and perhaps wasn’t suited to the style the Blues want to play right now. But an eye for goal like this is hard to ignore.

Who knows, perhaps one day both of them will be playing for us at Stamford Bridge? If Panichelli keeps up this scoring for the rest of the season, there’s no telling how many big bids will come in for him next summer.