Chelsea are starting a new chapter at Stamford Bridge with many mainstays departing this summer and a new manager in Mauricio Pochettino hopeful to lead the West London club to a comeback when they return to action next weekend.
The Blues will open their Premier League campaign with a challenging fixture against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge next Sunday and the former Tottenham Hotspur boss will be hoping to make a great first impression in front of an unsettled home support who experienced an unforgivable drop in the high expectations held last season.
Three different managers tried to repair the ongoing issues during the last campaign with neither Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter or club legend Frank Lampard able to stop the rot that ultimately led to a 12th place finish in the top-flight and failure to secure European football.
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With less than a month left before the transfer window closes until the turn of the year, the coming days and weeks are crucial to ensure Pochettino has enough depth and quality all over the pitch to replace departures, improve key positions and bring Chelsea back to life over the 38-game campaign.
Who are Chelsea's transfer targets?
Now that Chelsea have agreed a deal to sign Robert Sanchez from Brighton and Hove Albion, the main focus is looking set on adding depth in midfield following a number of high-profile departures.
N'Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic, Mason Mount and Denis Zakaria have all moved on this summer, and it is reported that Pochettino has drawn up a shortlist of midfield targets that include the likes of Leeds United's Tyler Adams, Ajax star Edson Alvarez and Brighton's Moises Caicedo.
However, due to a difficult season for newcomer Raheem Sterling, Crystal Palace winger Michael Olise is a player who has been named as a potential target for Chelsea this week, as the club intend to improve the creativity in the final third and goal contributions delivered to compete more comfortably with their top six rivals.
It is believed that Palace are commanding a £35m transfer fee for their star forward this summer.
Will Chelsea sign Michael Olise?
After signing for Chelsea in a £50m deal last summer, Sterling joined the fold in West London with high expectations attached to him following his outstanding success at Manchester City.
However, it hasn't been the fairytale switch for the England winger who managed to only find the back of the net six times and delivered three assists over 28 Premier League appearances last season, an inconsistent output that contributed to the team's struggles to take all three points from their opponents.
As a result, the signing of Olise could present an opportunity to add depth to the attacking third, with the Crystal Palace star versatile in his positioning and to potentially secure the services of an upgrade on Sterling.
Over 37 Premier League appearances last season, the 21-year-old – hailed a "special talent" by his former manager Patrick Vieira – scored two goals, registered a whopping 11 assists and created 11 big chances, as well as averaging 1.5 successful dribbles, 1.9 key passes and 5.4 duels won per game, as per SofaScore.
When comparing Olise's output to Sterling's last season, the France U21 talent comfortably outperformed his position competitor in a number of key attributes including shot-creating actions per 90 (4.68 v 3.23), goal-creating actions per 90 (0.43 v 0.19) and aerial duels won (30.9% v 27.8%), as per FBref.
As well as completing more progressive passes (4.35 v 3.39), successful take-ons (1.77 v 1.54), tackles won (1.90 v 0.93) and interceptions (0.85 v 0.07) per 90 minutes played, demonstrating that the all-action winger is a much better ball-winner than Sterling, something that could be incredibly valuable to Chelsea.
With that being said, if Pochettino can seal a deal for Olise this summer it would be a major coup for the manager and would provide the team with a fresh perspective in the final third that could massively pay off in the long-term future of the club.
