da 888casino： Chelsea are desperately chasing a much-needed victory to revive their season, having combatted a dreadful start to the new era under Todd Boehly;s ownership with a lucrative January spending spree…
da lvbet： Despite sacking Thomas Tuchel in the early weeks of the campaign and replacing him with Graham Potter, who had done a marvellous job with Brighton & Hove Albion, the Blues have not managed to match up the form on the pitch with the excess of £550m spent since the summer, with £288m being invested in January.
Since the turn of the year, the Blues have won just one of their nine games across all competitions. They currently sit tenth in the Premier League, having crashed out of both domestic cup competitions and recently conceded a 1-0 advantage to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League round of 16, albeit with the return leg at Stamford Bridge still to come.
Despite their recent woes, Chelsea have a golden opportunity to swerve back on track with a pivotal clash against struggling Southampton in the league on Saturday afternoon.
The managerless Saints are bottom of the division and four points adrift of safety, and with nine defeats from their past ten top-flight outings, failure to win at home would quite simply be inexcusable for the Blues.
Victory today is paramount, and in order to attain the three points, Raheem Sterling must be provided with the platform to flourish.
Should Sterling start vs Southampton?
To exacerbate Chelsea’s situation, they have netted just 23 league goals this season. This is not only the lowest tally of any team in the top half of the table, it is 11 fewer than seventh-placed Fulham with 34, the next-lowest scorers in this particular sub-table.
While Southampton hold the second-worst defensive tally in the league, superior only to Bournemouth, the Blues will need to make better use of their opportunities if they are to indeed stave off further misery.
With this in mind, Sterling – who was hailed by Ben Jacobs as “delightful” and signed for £47.5m from Manchester City last summer – must find a place in the starting line-up after missing the midweek trip to Dortmund. He is Chelsea’s joint-top scorer this season, and his vast Premier League experience (336 appearances) could be imperative in getting the Blues back on track.
While Mykhaylo Mudryk was signed for £88.5m in January, the Ukrainian prodigy has failed to register a goal or an assist across his first four outings for the club, earning a lowly Sofascore rating of 6.57 in the league thus far.
Sterling has plundered nine goals and four assists in 20 appearances against the Saints, with only Watford and Bournemouth shipping more goals against him, and he netted in the reverse fixture, a 2-1 loss for Chelsea, earlier this season.
With FBref ranking him among the top 12% of positional peers in Europe’s five main leagues for touches in the attacking box and the top 17% for progressive passes received, comparative to the likes of Mohamed Salah, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez, he can indeed be the striking sensation to elevate Chelsea back towards the European places.
Amid all of the club’s winter spending, it’s easy to forget that Sterling only arrived at Stamford Bridge last summer. Given his pedigree, his status as the club’s joint-top scorer this season and his hunger to stake a claim for a starting role in this new-look Chelsea team, he must be unleashed against Southampton, who he could bully once more if he finds his best form.
He might just hold the key to success for Potter and co…