Michael Owen blames ‘biggest mystery of all time’ as reason for Chelsea’s shocking season despite £600m splurge
MICHAEL OWEN reflected on “the biggest mystery of all time” as he discussed Chelsea’s disastrous season.
Any hopes of silverware were extinguished last night as Real Madrid won 2-0 at Stamford Bridge to secure passage to the Champions League semi-finals.
With the London club sitting 11th in the Premier League having spent up to £600m on transfers this season, pundits were left scratching their heads as to how it had all gone so badly for the Blues.
Owen pointed to Chelsea’s failure to bring in a top quality striker despite their spending spree as the thing that confused him most.
Speaking to BT, he said: “It’s one of the biggest mysteries of all time – how can you spend £500m and hardly bring a player in who’s going to influence the goal-scoring department?
“They look so toothless in front of goal, they don’t look like scoring.
“Erling Haaland has scored four or five more goals than the entire [Chelsea] team this season. It’s incredible for a team like Chelsea to not have someone who is banging them in on a regular basis.
” I don’t know where they’re going to come from, but they have to come from somewhere.”
Scoring has been the Blues’ main problem this season with only 30 goals registered from 31 league games.
That is fewer strikes than Leeds and Leicester, with both of those clubs sitting within the bottom five of the table.
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The lack of finishing was also evident in both legs against Real Madrid where Chelsea created chances but failed to convert them.
Issues up front has long been an issue for the club, with big money signings like Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner failing to score consistently in recent seasons.
The only recognised striker Chelsea have signed in the last two windows is 33-year-old Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but he has been frozen out of the squad for much of the campaign.
Big sums instead went to the other parts of the team such as midfield, where Enzo Fernandez was signed for £107m and Wesley Fofana was brought in for £70m.