{"id":31882,"date":"2025-12-09T10:45:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/09\/chelsea-set-their-sights-on-one-of-europes-most-in-form-central-defenders\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T10:45:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:45:35","slug":"chelsea-set-their-sights-on-one-of-europes-most-in-form-central-defenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/09\/chelsea-set-their-sights-on-one-of-europes-most-in-form-central-defenders\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea set their sights on &#8216;one of Europe&#8217;s most in-form central defenders&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_74 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/09\/chelsea-set-their-sights-on-one-of-europes-most-in-form-central-defenders\/#Chelsea_aim_to_upgrade_Delap\" >Chelsea aim to upgrade Delap<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/09\/chelsea-set-their-sights-on-one-of-europes-most-in-form-central-defenders\/#Comparison_of_Panichelli_and_Delap\" >Comparison of Panichelli and Delap<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-5' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-5'><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-5' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-5'><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-5' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-5'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/12\/09\/chelsea-set-their-sights-on-one-of-europes-most-in-form-central-defenders\/#Chelseas_failure_quickly_became_the_biggest_liability_since_Bakayoko\" >Chelsea&#8217;s failure quickly became the biggest liability since Bakayoko<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>This time last week, it looked like Chelsea would be competing with Arsenal for the Premier League title.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- No AdsNinja v10 Client! --><!-- No AdsNinja v10 Client! --><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, a humiliating defeat away to Leeds United, followed quickly by a dull 1-all draw away with Bournemouth, has put any such thoughts to rest for now.<\/p>\n<p>There is definitely talent in Enzo Maresca&#8217;s side, but there are areas where they can improve, such as in the No. 9 position.<\/p>\n<p>    Fortunately, Chelsea are currently linked with someone who can do just that, someone who could be an upgrade to Liam Delap.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- No AdsNinja v10 Client! --><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"chelsea-target-delap-upgrade\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Chelsea_aim_to_upgrade_Delap\"><\/span>\n                        <strong>Chelsea aim to upgrade Delap<\/strong><br \/>\n               <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>With less than a month until the transfer window reopens, to no one&#8217;s surprise, Chelsea are already linked with a number of signings.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the Blues are one of a number of teams linked with Nottingham Forest&#8217;s Murillo.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, RB Leipzig&#8217;s incredibly exciting Castello Lukuba is also being touted as a \u00a353m move to Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>However, while the two defenders will undoubtedly strengthen Maresca&#8217;s team, unlike Joaqu\u00edn Panicelli, neither can and will not replace Delap or Jo\u00e3o Pedro up top.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, according to recent reports from Spain, Chelsea are one of the few Premier League clubs interested in the RC Strasbourg striker.<\/p>\n<p>    The report reveals that, in addition to the West Londoners, West Ham United and Aston Villa are also eyeing the Argentine striker.<\/p>\n<p>The report does not reveal how much the star player&#8217;s \u00a328,000-a-week salary is, but given that his contract runs until the summer of 2030, it won&#8217;t be cheap.<\/p>\n<p>    Still, Chelsea should do everything they can to sign Panichelli, even if it&#8217;s bad news for Delap.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- No AdsNinja v10 Client! --><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"how-panichelli-compares-to-delap\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Comparison_of_Panichelli_and_Delap\"><\/span>\n                        <strong>Comparison of Panichelli and Delap<\/strong><br \/>\n               <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>It may sound simple, and it is, but the first and most important metric to compare when looking at two strikers is output.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for Delap, this is an area where Panichelli let him beat him, which he comfortably overcame.<\/p>\n<p>So far this season, for example, the Argentine, described by U23 scout Antonio Mango as &#8220;one of the most in-form strikers in Europe&#8221;, has scored 10 goals in 1,367 minutes in 19 appearances.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, the Cordoba-born gem is involved in a goal on average every 1.9 games, or every 136.7 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>In stark contrast, the Blues&#8217; summer signing saw him score just one goal in 11 games, playing a total of 453 minutes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"table-container\">\n<table border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"1\" cellspacing=\"1\" style=\"\" align=\"\" summary=\"\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th colspan=\"3\" style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>25\/26 Panichelli vs Delap<\/p>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>player<\/p>\n<\/th>\n<th style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>Panichelli<\/p>\n<\/th>\n<th style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>Delap<\/p>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>Appearance<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>19<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>11<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>minutes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>1367&#8242;<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>453 minutes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>the goal<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>10<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>assist<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>Number of goals involved per match<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>0.52<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>0.09<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>Hours per goal involvement<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>136.7&#8242;<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p>453<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th colspan=\"3\" style=\"text-align:center\">\n<p><em>All stats via Transfermarkt<\/em><\/p>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<p>The next advantage the former Deportivo Alav\u00e9s star has over the Englishman is the fact that he seems to be less prone to injuries.<\/p>\n<p>For example, he suffered a severe ACL injury in the 23\/24 season that caused him to miss 24 games, but he only missed one game all of last season and has only missed one game so far this year.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the former Ipswich Town star suffered a knee injury that saw him miss 18 games in 2023\/24.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, he has already missed 12 games this year with a hamstring issue and is currently dealing with a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the Winchester-born ace is currently 22 years old, while the Strasbourg star only turned 23 two months ago, so he is significantly younger and therefore doesn&#8217;t even have the advantage of a higher ceiling.<\/p>\n<p>After all, Panichelli is clearly the more dangerous forward, and what&#8217;s more, he also seems to be less prone to injuries. Chelsea should therefore do everything they can to sign Delap in 2026, even if it means the end of his time at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n<div class=\"display-card  article article-card small  no-badge  active-content                      \" data-include-community-rating=\"false\" id=\"marescas-tosin-adarabioyo-is-chelseas-biggest-liability-since-bakayoko\" data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<picture><source media=\"(max-width: 480px)\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/static0.footballfancastimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/mixcollage-08-dec-2025-02-01-pm-7671.jpg?q=49&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=140&amp;h=98&amp;dpr=2\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static0.footballfancastimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/mixcollage-08-dec-2025-02-01-pm-7671.jpg?q=49&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=140&amp;h=98&amp;dpr=2\"\/>\n        <\/picture>\n<p>                    <span data-field=\"label\" class=\"article-card-label\"><label>related<\/label><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"w-display-card-content regular article-block\">\n<h5 class=\"display-card-title \"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Chelseas_failure_quickly_became_the_biggest_liability_since_Bakayoko\"><\/span>\n<p>\t\t\tChelsea&#8217;s failure quickly became the biggest liability since Bakayoko<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h5>\n<p class=\"display-card-excerpt\">Chelsea and Maresca need to recover from their walking disasters as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This time last week, it looked like Chelsea would be competing with Arsenal for the Premier League title. Unfortunately, a humiliating defeat away to Leeds United, followed quickly by a dull 1-all draw away with Bournemouth, has put any such thoughts to rest for now. There is definitely talent in Enzo Maresca&#8217;s side, but there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[6828,200,7639,933,40,7638,150,1085],"class_list":{"0":"post-31882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-central","9":"tag-chelsea","10":"tag-defenders","11":"tag-europes","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-inform","14":"tag-set","15":"tag-sights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}