Remy Should be Ahead of Chelsea Legend in Pecking Order

I know most Blues wouldn’t agree but I was one of those who were very happy to see the trio of Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba depart from the Bridge this summer. To me they represented the very reason why we couldn’t win the league last season even if though it was there for the taking.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some special moments like Ba’s goals against Liverpool and PSG not forgetting the Eto’o hattrick against United and the goal against Spurs and the attendant old man celebration. However even the fans with the most blue-tinted glasses must have noticed that it was all too inconsistent. Too many times last season we watched all the good work of Hazard, Oscar and Willian go to waste so much so that our main goal scoring responsibility fell on Eden Hazard whose goals also ran out too soon. So when the Costa signing was announced I was ecstatic and then I thought what if he gets injured? Then Didier came back and I thought “OK cool but isn’t he too old? Does he still have what it takes to mix it in the EPL”? At that point, Fernando was our third choice and I couldn’t help but keep worrying that by a cruel twist of fate, ankles, knees or a pulled hamstring we could find ourselves relying on Fernando for goals and we all know how that works out.

So when the news about our interest in Loic Remy first broke I was quite glad. I remember scored the winning goal in a 2-0 loss away to Newcastle last season winning the man of the match award also. I checked on his career stats and I discovered that he had scored 77 goals in 206 league matches at that time having played in France and England with a goals to games ratio of about 0.30. Well one could say not so prolific but then not bad for a second choice striker right, that’s what I thought. So we signed Remy and sent Fernando off to Italy.

However after observing few games into season, it became somewhat apparent that Didier was Jose’s second choice when Diego isn’t available and I was wondering why. My reasons are quite simple. Didier is 36 pushing towards 37 and yes it’s amazing that he is still delivering the goals, but he apparently isn’t going to be playing football much longer and then we have Loic who is 27 and is already below a younger Diego Costa in the pecking order and then has to endure the ignominy of playing third fiddle to Didier?

Correct me if I am wrong but the logic doesn’t just add up. Also Didier has made 18 appearances to date this season and has scored 7 goals while Remy has made 13 appearances mostly as a substitute and has scored three goals but looking at our build up play and fluidity in attack it appears we seem somewhat slow and stifled when Didier leads the line compared to when either Costa or Remy plays. I know what you are thinking, Didier is a legend but I am also sure I am not the only one who has noticed this and would love to see Remy handed a solid opportunity as number two. I am sure he would grab the oppourtunity with both hands.