By TERRY VENABLES
IF only Chelsea had Jermain Defoe!
There’s little doubt their expensively-assembled squad looks light on strikers — and Defoe would be the perfect solution.
But I’m not suggesting he could replace Fernando Torres. Far from it.
Defoe’s arrival would help their No 1 front man Torres become even better.
I believe Defoe could take away the crushing burden on Torres to convert every half-chance into a goal, therefore freeing the Spaniard to turn on all his other wonderful skills.
There’s just too much expectancy on Torres to become Chelsea’s replacement for Didier Drogba.
But he’s simply not that kind of player, whereas Defoe is.
Yes, I know Defoe signed a new deal with Tottenham a few weeks into this season.
But having spent much of last season on the bench at White Hart Lane, I thought Chelsea could and should have made a serious attempt to lure him across London to Stamford Bridge.
I do not know whether a deal could have been done for the player. But I do know he would have made Blues stronger and a much more potent threat in attack.
His no-nonsense directness in and around the box would have proved the perfect counterpoint for Chelsea’s new elaborate style of football — that has rightly earned them many plaudits this season.
If there is one criticism about the Premier League leaders it is that they are not clinical enough in front of goal.
Especially Torres, who does not score goals in a Drogba kind of way.
The capture of Defoe would have solved that dilemma.
He showed against Chelsea last week how deadly he is inside the penalty box when he fired Tottenham 2-1 up in their pulsating London derby at White Hart Lane.
The Blues recovered to win 4-2.
But you get the feeling that had Defoe been in their ranks they would never have fallen behind in the first place.
Roberto Di Matteo’s men are flying at the moment with their Three Amigos — Juan Mata, Oscar and Eden Hazard — pulling all the strings in an attacking triumvirate operating behind lone wolf Torres up front.
The way they rotate and interchange, ensuring they support the striker, fill all the space and do not leave big gaps in their team’s shape is outstanding to see.
They are more than just show ponies. Much more.
And the chances they create — and Torres helps create — are both fantastic and frequent.
It is a shame for them and Chelsea that at the moment they do not have a striker to put them away on a regular basis, or that Torres is expected to be that player.
Defoe, 30 earlier this month, would have been that man.
His strike against Chelsea was his 200th career goal and his fifth Prem goal in only eight games this season.
He may not have always been a regular starter at Spurs but he has always been a regular scorer.
He has banged in goals wherever he has been and you know it would have been no different at Chelsea.
He would have absolutely thrived on the silver service dished up by wizards Mata, Oscar and Hazard. Defoe loves making diagonal runs in and behind defenders and his timing is sensational.
Some strikers make runs too early or too late and then wonder why they are either too far in front of or too far behind the ball when it is played into them.
But England striker Defoe’s timing is usually spot on.
He has that knack of arriving on the end of passes and crosses at precisely the right moment.
Some people in the game will try to tell you that you cannot coach that skill.
But it is a safe bet he has spent years on the training ground honing that instinct.
He looks well on course to break the 20-goal barrier again this season.
And I can’t see anyone at Chelsea hitting those heights.
