Three big questions: Chelsea’s Michy Batshuayi and a foot out the door

3. Did Chelsea miss out or was this never the right fit?

Okay just hear this one out. Batshuayi has barely played for Chelsea. When he has, few would be willing to say he deserved more minutes. It is widely acknowledged that his time at both Dortmund and Crystal Palace went well. Valencia was a bad time, but if only one loan in three went wrong then it is hard to blame the player for it.

All this being said about how Batshuayi has done and how he fits in at Chelsea can also be looked at through the be all end all stat for strikers: goals. In that sense, Batshuayi is not quite a Blues starting striker level but he is still at a very decent backup level. 25 goals in 77 for Chelsea, nine in 14 for Dortmund, and six in 13 for Crystal Palace (plus three in 23 for Valencia) comes out to 43 goals in 127 while under contract with the Blues. That is a pretty decent rate for a backup striker at a club like Chelsea.

Divvy that out into minutes and over 5,560 minutes he is getting a goal roughly every 130 minutes. Compare that to Olivier Giroud who has a goal every 160 minutes in his Chelsea career and Tammy Abraham who has around a goal every 168 minutes while at the Blues and one begins to wonder if the Blues missed something with Batshuayi.

Of course, it is hard to have watched Batshuayi over four seasons (including loans) and three managers and come to the conclusion that the Blues missed anything with the Belgian. But the stats are the stats and statistically, Batshuayi shows up well. Now there can of course be mention of being a substitute and coming on against tired defenses but there should still be a bit of “what if” when it comes to Batshuayi.

This notion may not really play out over the course of a full season as a starter elsewhere. If it does, however, a few in and around Chelsea may be asking themselves what they missed.

What questions do you think need to be asked of Michy Batshuayi? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter!