Chelsea still suffering from striker jinx as goals remain a problem for Pochettino

Of all the blunt truths learnt by Chelsea’s new owners since they took control of the club 16 busy months ago, here’s the sure-fire one: cast off an expensive striker and he will immediately find top form wherever he goes.

Far less certain is that Chelsea’s extravagant recruiters will improve the squad with their choice of replacement goalscorer.

It took Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang two minutes of his first home start for Olympique Marseille, OM, to score his first goal for the latest of his many clubs, in last week’s Uefa Champions League qualifier against Panathinaikos.

Aubameyang signed for Chelsea from Barcelona on transfer deadline day last summer. He had left for the South of France within 11 months. He already has twice as many goals – two – as an OM player as he managed in an entire Premier League campaign at Chelsea.

Aubameyang cost around €12 million. He left for free. Christian Pulisic this summer joined AC Milan in July for some €20 million, less than a third of the price Chelsea paid Borussia Dortmund for the American in 2019. True to routine, Pulisic netted a spectacular goal 21 minutes into his Milan debut, at Bologna last weekend.

These are not one-offs. Rewind 12 months and Romelu Lukaku, who had just started a loan spell from Chelsea back at his former club, Inter Milan, was scoring within two minutes of his second Inter debut; the same weekend, Timo Werner, sold back – at a €25 million loss – by Chelsea to RB Leipzig was re-debuting in Germany with a goal.

A year on, Lukaku finds himself impatient to see if he can again be part of this long catalogue of instantly renewed ex-Blues.

His loan at Inter over, he is still on the staff at Chelsea, who paid €113 million for him two summers ago, but keen to find a