Why the stats back up Liam Delap taking so-called cursed number 9 shirt at Chelsea | OneFootball

The stats back up Liam Delap’s decision to take the alleged cursed number nine shirt at the club after joining this summer.

This news comes after Chelsea finally confirmed the arrival of striker Liam Delap from Ipswich Town on Wednesday after days of us knowing it was a done deal!

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Delap arrives at the club on a 6-year contract and Chelsea are paying the £30m release clause to sign which in reality, is an absolutely bargain in this day and age.

Chelsea fans know they have a top new talent coming in here, one that is still a bit raw and still developing, but one who has an incredibly high ceiling and so many top attributes for a number 9.

Delap has all the tools

Liam Delap is a superb signing for Chelsea for a fee in the region of £30m. I think this is excellent business and I really do rate the player.

Liam Delap’s signing photo for Chelsea. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

I think he is a proper and true number 9 and can do a bit of everything. The complete striker. Obviously he is young and still has some developing to do, but I think he will very soon rise right to the top. And £30m is very low risk anyway. But I think he will bang. I genuinely believe he will be our new Diego Costa in more ways than one.

Stats back it up

This article by Opta Analyst shows some stats that prove that Delap is ready for the 9 shirt at Chelsea.

They say:

‘Ipswich had a disappointing return to the top flight, relegated with several weeks of the Premier League season remaining, but Delap was a rare bright spark, scoring 12 goals in 37 league games.

‘Of that dozen, 10 were non-penalty goals, with none of Delap’s teammates scoring more than four. His 12 goals came from 9.3 xG, an overperformance of 2.7 xG. The 22-year-old had 48 shots from inside the penalty area, at least twice as many as any of his teammates.’