The following crude table, and I haven't bothered to calculate goals per game or a lot of other stuff convinces me that last season's rearrangement of the midfield to accomodate Ballack, Essien and Mikel has lead to a drop in our goal scoring.

The table clearly shows the contribution of players such as Duff, Robben, Tiago and JC in the two winning seasons was much better than the contribution from SWP, Ballack and Essien last season.

In addtion Gallas was a surprisingly useful goal scorer.

As for Kalou/Sheva, in the premiership between them they probably did nearly as well as a second striker would do, scoring between them about the same as Guddy in 04/05 or Crespo in 05/06

The table hints that it will be essential for Joe Cole and kalou to start scoring goals and soon.

Chelsea goal scoring analysis

2004-5 2005-6 2006-7 2007-8

Strikers

Crespo 10

Guddy 12 2

Sheva 4

Kalou 7

Drogba 10 12 20 1

Pizarro 1

- - - -

Striker total 22 24 31 2

Midfield

SWP 2

Ballack 4

Essien 2 2 1

JC 8 8

Duff 6 3

Robben 7 6 2

Tiago 4

Malouda 1

Lampard 13 16 11 3

- - - -

Midfield total 38 35 21 5

Defenders

Terry 3 4 1

Carvalho 1 1 3

Gallas 2 5

- - - -

Defender total 6 10 4 0

Total 66 69 56 7

%

Striker 33% 35% 55% 29%

Midfield 58% 51% 38% 71%

Defender 9% 14% 7% 0%

- - - -

Total 100% 100% 100% 100%

I think our goal scoring problems have been a long time comming. Last season we managed time and time again to pinch goals we probably didn't deserve and it was only a matter of time before we lack of creativity in the side started to bite.

Selling Crespo, Gudjohnsen, Duff, Gallas and Robben and replacing them with likes of Kalou, Sheva, SWP and Ben Haim has watered down out back to back league winning sides if you ask me.

Kalou scored a reasonable amount last season and would already have 1 for this season if he had been luckier with the offside decision. He has age on his side and I think is a good support striker for the squad. Pizarro is also a good squad striker and hasn't really had many opportunities yet. Sheva is obviously the big disappointment. I think we should have taken the alleged offer from Milan this summer and at least got something back. We could have spent the money on Jermain Defoe who I think would have been good value for a source of goals.

With Drogba out injured we either need Sheva and Kalou to come good or we need more goals from midfield. In the absence of Frank Joe Cole is probably the most obvious source but he needs more starts before he gets back to his full potential.

In a way it is good that Drogs is out right now so we can see if the other options are really up to it. If the backup options do not do a good enough job I think you will see us bring in another striker in the January window before the African Cup of Nations.

After looking at that I would rather have Crespo than Scheva, I just hope scheva can find that extra gear.