Their new Torres: Chelsea flop now looks like a "total waste of money"

Chelsea’s struggles continue.

Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Arsenal was the Blues’ fourth successive Premier League defeat away from home, failing to score once again, rarely threatening David Raya’s goal all afternoon.

Enzo Mareca’s side remain fifth, which would be enough to see them sneak into the Champions League, but, considering their May fixtures are Liverpool (H), Newcastle (A), Manchester United (H) and Nottingham Forest (A), a huge April awaits.

One Chelsea player in particular certainly isn’t pulling their weight, evoking memories of a flop from the past.

Fernando Torres’ Chelsea career

In one of the most controversial and era-defining transfers of a generation, Fernando Torres moved from Liverpool to Chelsea for £50m on deadline day in January 2011, at the time the sixth-most expensive transfer in history and a Premier League record deal.

Fair to say, this move did not pay off, considering the Spaniard scored just 45 goals in 172 appearances for the Blues, with Ryan Bailey of Bleacher Report outlining that he is widely considered a ‘flop’.

Well, given that fee, and considering how good Torres had previously been at Liverpool, it’s easy to understand why.

In a remarkably similar number of minutes at both clubs, Torres scored almost twice as many goals for Liverpool, with then teammate Jamie Carragher claiming that the Spaniard was “the best striker in the world” during his time at Anfield.

Fast-forward to the present day, are Chelsea faced with a similar conundrum, having signed one of the world’s best forwards, who simply isn’t living up to expectations at Stamford Bridge?

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Chelsea have found their new Fernando Torres

Christopher Nkunku joined Chelsea from RB Leipzig for a reported fee of £52m in June 2023 and did so with sky-high expectations.

The Frenchman netted 70 goals and provided 47 assists during 172 appearances in Leipzig, named Bundesliga player of the season in 2021/22, winning the Torjägerkanone award as the division’s top-scorer the following campaign.

As a result, Christian Schmidt of Opta’s the Analyst labeled Nkunku one of football’s most-exciting talents, adding that he has ‘no weaknesses’, while Raphael Honigstein of the Athletic noted that his ‘positional versatility’ is one of his biggest strengths.

Well, the fact he’s been unable to cement any position since moving to Chelsea has become one of his biggest problems, with pundit Craig Burley describing him as a “total waste of money” on ESPN.

The Frenchman got off to a miserable start, suffering a long-term knee injury during a pre-season friendly against Borussia Dortmund in Chicago, delaying his Premier League debut until Christmas Eve 2023.

Thus, Nkunku was never really able to establish any rhythm last season although, right now, with Noni Madueke, Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu all sidelined, he is a regular in the team, but Malik Ouzia of the Evening Standard states that he once again ‘offered nothing’ during Sunday’s defeat to Arsenal.

So, let’s assess Nkunku’s statistics on a season-by-season basis.

Simply looking at the table above, Nkunku’s statistics aren’t too bad, considering he’s scored 14 goals in all competitions, thereby averaging a goal every 129 minutes.

However, these are certainly skewed by his performances in the UEFA Conference League, with seven of his 14 goals coming in this competition, on target against Servette twice, FC Noah twice, Gent, Panathinaikos and Heidenheim, as well as a hat-trick in the EFL Cup against Barrow which, without wanting to disrespect any of those teams, is certainly skewing the data.

Coincidentally, Torres’ numbers at Stamford Bridge were also skewed by his efforts in cup action; only 20 of his 45 Blues goals came in the Premier League.

So, let’s analyse only Nkunku’s Premier League statistics.

As the table outlines, Nkunku’s statistics this season are very middling, not standing out for any attacking metric, his negative goals – xG figure certainly a concern.

Despite reported interest from Bayern Munich, Chelsea chose to keep hold of Nkunku in January, but surely, if they receive any sort of offer for him come the summer, the Blues will be best off cutting their losses.

Like Torres, he’s been nothing but an expensive flop, one who has had a far more enjoyable time of it in the cups, than in the league.

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