In two years, Chelsea have signed a full team of attackers and yet as they line up Alejandro Garnacho as the latest potential recruit they still have two issues they look no closer to solving.

Goalkeeper Robert Sánchez travels to Manchester City on Saturday night fresh from his fourth error that has led to a goal this season, while striker Nicolas Jackson is without a goal in six games.

Having tied Erling Haaland down to a 10-year contract, Chelsea’s opponents this week signed another striker, Omar Marmoush, in a deal worth around £60 million.

Since January 2023, Chelsea have spent over £350 million on attackers, predominantly wingers and No 10s, with £51 million of that going on out-and-out strikers – Jackson, promising teenager Marc Guiu and David Datro Fofana, who is on his third loan away from Stamford Bridge.

Christopher Nkunku is Chelsea’s second-highest goalscorer this season and yet is described as an “attacking midfielder” by head coach Enzo Maresca and may finish the January transfer window at Bayern Munich. João Félix can play as a false nine, but has not hit double figures in a league campaign since his Benfica days.

Jackson, who cost Chelsea £35 million, has been a successful signing and is on course to better the 14 league goals he scored last season. But it has been evident the 23-year-old would benefit from help or greater competition and it is still unclear whether he will ever be consistently prolific.

Top strikers are not easy to find, particularly in January, but Marmoush, who scored 15 Bundesliga goals this season for Eintracht Frankfurt, would have filled a more immediate need for Chelsea than Garnacho – particularly with another winger, Estêvão Willian, scheduled to arrive in the summer.

Chelsea have reasoned that they need more goal contributions and competition from the flanks, which is why £54 million was spent on Pedro Neto last summer and Jadon Sancho arrived on an initial loan ahead of a £25 million permanent move.

Neto has managed one goal and two assists in the Premier League so far, with Sancho getting on the scoresheet twice and assisting a further four goals. Noni Madueke, a £30 million signing two years ago, is Chelsea’s top-performing wingman with six league goals and three assists, while Mykhailo Mudryk, who arrived in the same transfer window, is unable to play after testing positive for a banned substance.

Garnacho has three league goals and one assist for Manchester United this season, having netted seven times and set up a further four goals in the last campaign. His signing would undoubtedly improve Maresca’s squad and help relieve some of the burden on others, but it would still leave gaps.

Chelsea are looking at strikers in case an opportunity arises in the final week or so of this window or they can line up a deal for the summer, with Ipswich Town’s Liam Delap and RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko among those on their radar.

Goalkeeping issues

It would also be prudent to give consideration to the club’s goalkeeping situation, with evidence mounting that Chelsea will need to upgrade Sánchez if they are to achieve their ambitions. Maresca does not need to look far for an example of how his backing of the Spaniard is likely to end.

One of Maresca’s assistants, Willy Caballero, was on the Manchester City substitutes’ bench for the first half of the 2016-17 season when Pep Guardiola was having to defend Claudio Bravo on an almost weekly basis.

By February 1 that season, Caballero had been handed Bravo’s place and in the summer of 2017 City spent a then world record fee to sign Ederson.

Over the past two years, Chelsea have spent almost £60 million on three first-team goalkeepers – Sánchez, Filip Jorgensen and Djordje Petrovic, who is on loan at Strasbourg, having been No 1 ahead of Sánchez at Chelsea last term.

Money has also been spent on young goalkeepers, most notably 19-year-old Mike Penders, who has remained on loan at Genk and is rated extremely highly.

But it appears inevitable that Chelsea will eventually have to follow City’s example and bite the bullet on Sánchez if they are to become realistic title challengers in the next couple of years.

Sánchez is not a bad goalkeeper, as some of his statistics show, and he has rescued Chelsea on more than one occasion this season – most notably away at Bournemouth and at home against Nottingham Forest.

But only Arijanet Muric has made more errors leading to goals this season and Ipswich have replaced him with Christian Walton in recent weeks.

At Chelsea’s top-four rivals – City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Forest – only Ederson has made a single error that has resulted in a goal this season.

According to Opta, Sánchez has also made six errors that have led to shots, which is two more than David Raya and five greater than Ederson. Alisson and Matz Sels, who Forest signed from Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg, have blanked in that category.

Chelsea’s last title success came in the season in which City tried to stick with Bravo until they had to concede defeat, while Thibaut Courtois was in goal for Antonio Conte’s side.

Courtois, following the legendary Petr Cech, was Chelsea’s last great goalkeeper and City’s most successful era arrived once Guardiola had replaced Bravo with Ederson at the end of the 2016-17 season.

The prospect of another wingman may be exciting for Chelsea fans, but it is the signing of a goalkeeper and a striker that is more likely to be game changing.