Chelsea have been told they must sign a striker in the summer if they want to challenge for the Premier League title.

Nicolas Jackson is currently Enzo Maresca's first-choice frontman, with the 23-year-old scoring nine goals this season. The Blues also have Christopher Nkunku and Marc Guiu in their ranks, although Maresca sees Nkunku as more of a No.10 and Guiu is still just 19 years old.

While he has improved since moving to west London from Villareal for around £32million in 2023, Jackson is not prolific and this has led some to criticise the Senegal forward. Victor Osimhen, Benjamin Sesko and Viktor Gyokeres are just some of the strikers to have been linked with a move to Stamford Bridge and it's possible the club look to sign another frontman in the summer.

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Former Blues right-back Paul Parker believes his old club must sign a new striker if they want to compete for trophies going forwards. Speaking to CryptoCasinosUK, Parker said: “Even though Nicolas Jackson is a hard worker, I think Chelsea could upgrade on him. He chases everything and that is why Enzo Maresca keeps picking him for the side, but Chelsea need someone better. They need a centre forward who can take them forward to win, and someone with a bit of an edge.

“There are so many games that Chelsea have had where they haven’t punished teams and they’re on a bad run as a result, even though they beat West Ham. I thought that they could challenge for the title this season, but that challenge has petered out a bit. While Jackson is someone who can be brought on to stretch teams late in the game I think if they can get that striker position sorted, there’s a squad that can compete there.

“Chelsea fans aren’t at Jackson because they can see how hard he tries and that he plays with his heart on his sleeve. That bit of him is there and the fans respect him for it, but they need a Drogba type player if they really want to step forward in the league.”

Whether or not Chelsea sign a striker in the summer remains to be seen. Maresca is a fan of Jackson, though, and heaped praise on him only last month.

"He can do many things better, but he is doing already very good," the Chelsea boss said. "He has already scored nine goals and last year he scored 14, so he’s on course to score more goals than he scored last year.

"Hopefully he can score more goals, he can help us, but we are completely happy with Nico. The reason why he didn’t play the last game against Ipswich was because we have also more players that can help us."