Raheem Sterling has conceded Chelsea’s lack of ruthlessness cost them in their loss to West Ham, while Ashley Cole has questioned where the goals are going to come from this campaign.
Chelsea have undergone a huge rebuild this summer under new head coach Mauricio Pochettino, with the likes of Mason Mount, Kai Havertz and Kante leading a mass exodus that has seen 13 senior players leave Stamford Bridge.
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More than £350m has been spent this summer on Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Nkunku, Axel Disasi, Nicolas Jackson, Robert Sanchez and Ugochukwu, adding to the £600m+ Chelsea spent on new players last campaign.
But, the club’s biggest problem as they had their worst ever Premier League campaign was a lack of goals, with Havertz and Sterling their joint top scorer with nine strikes in all competitions.
Jackson and Nkunku have been signed to rectify the issue, but Nkunku has been sidelined with a serious knee injury while Jackson had less than 50 top-flight matches under his belt before joining Chelsea.
And they failed to take their chances against West Ham, losing the match 3-1 despite having 17 shots, 76 per cent possession and a man advantage after Aguerd was sent off.
Reflecting on the game, Sterling told Sky Sports: “It is a difficult one to take, the chances we created and dominating at an away ground.
“They took their chances and they deserve it in the end. Dominating a game at a ground like West Ham’s you have got to take your chances, this is the Premier League and it will come back to haunt you. When that second goal went in it was a downer, as we have not taken our chances and they took theirs.
“It is stepping stones, we dominated the game and physically we are better, we just need to cut out some of the sloppy play.”
Former Chelsea star Cole, meanwhile, highlighted the lack of a goalscorer as the biggest issue facing Pochettino this season.
“I really feel there’s going to be a problem in terms of goals,” he told Sky Sports. “Whether Nkunku comes back quicker than we think I don’t know, for me he’s a big loss. You’re looking at other players around, [Mykhaylo] Mudryk sometimes is a little bit too far away from the game, is he arriving in the box enough?
“That’s what you want, penetration, runs in behind, causes defences problems. Raheem I thought was brilliant as well as Jackson, but it’s where the goals are going to come from.”
