Liam Delap confidently brushed off any talk of curses last summer when he accepted the Chelsea No 9 shirt. But just 14 minutes into his full home debut for the club, he may have been forgiven for wondering if the hoodoo really does exist.
Having never suffered a muscle injury in his entire senior career, Delap pulled up with a hamstring problem that kept him out for two months and meant he has been playing catch-up ever since. A shoulder injury in December held up his progress further.
Arsenal arrive at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final on Wednesday night with their own striker signing, Viktor Gyokeres, under the spotlight. But it is also a chance for Delap to shine under new head coach Liam Rosenior.
Rosenior watched from the Fulham stands last week, as Delap scored his first Premier League goal for Chelsea since his £30m move from Ipswich Town. Rosenior later declared that the 22-year-old, who played for him at Hull City, has turned a corner.
“I think the last two performances of Liam, he looks unlocked,” Rosenior said. “I thought he was outstanding when he came on against Manchester City. He made a huge difference to the team and it was great to see him score at Craven Cottage even though we lost the game.
“I have a certain way I work with strikers that Liam knows and there are certain things I know myself and my staff can help him with. He knows us and what we expect from a number nine and the positions they take up in certain areas of the pitch. He is six foot three, can run like the wind and I am looking forward to working with him.”
Delap is the first Chelsea striker to wear the No 9 shirt since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who joined a long list of players who found it weighed heavily. Fernando Torres, Radamel Falcao, Álvaro Morata, Gonzalo Higuaín and Romelu Lukaku are all among the strikers to have worn the No 9 at Chelsea without much success.
Rosenior’s predecessor Enzo Maresca claimed he had “no doubt” Delap can be a future England No 9. But another former Chelsea head coach, Thomas Tuchel, who is now in charge of England, would have surely warned Delap away from the shirt at Stamford Bridge, given he once said: “It’s cursed, it’s cursed, people tell me it’s cursed.
“Everybody who is longer than me in the club tells me: ‘Ah, you know, like he had the nine and he did not score and he had the nine and did also not score.’ So we now we have a moment where nobody wants to touch the number nine.”
Delap currently has more cards than he does goals for Chelsea. He has netted twice in all competitions, but collected two yellow cards in the league and was sent-off for two bookable offences against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the League Cup.
Nicolas Jackson’s disciplinary record contributed to his summer departure and yet Delap currently has the exact same yellow card rate per 90 minutes in the league as the Senegalese had at Chelsea last season. It took until May for Jackson to be sent off.
Former Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole attended Rosenior’s first press conference when he claimed Delap has been “unlocked” and had previously compared the former Manchester City youngster’s temperament to that of Wayne Rooney.
“Rooney played on that line, and obviously overstepped it at times,” Cole said. “He played on the edge, and Liam plays on the edge. Liam will have to learn to taper it a little bit and that’s what you get when you buy young players.”
Wearing the No 15 shirt, Jackson scored 30 goals in all competitions over his two seasons at Chelsea before joining Bayern Munich on loan. Delap will need a good second half of the campaign to match or better the 13 goals Jackson netted last term.
Jackson has five goals in as many starts for Bayern, where he is understudy to Harry Kane, and there are Chelsea supporters who believe he may remain a better fit for their team than Delap.
But Chelsea will hope the arrival of Rosenior will change the landscape and the fortune of Delap, who scored eight goals in the Championship under Rosenior on loan at Hull two seasons ago. That clinched him a £15m move to Ipswich, where he netted 12.
While the goals are yet to flow for Chelsea, Delap has shown some of his qualities by rating strongly for duels won and aerial duels won. He has also registered 1.3 shots on target per 90 minutes in the league, which is higher than Gyokeres, Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak this season.
That has been enough to catch the eye of former England striker Gary Lineker, who said: “I think there’s something in him. He’s got to prove it yet. He’s got to stay fit. But I like his movement. I like the way he tries to get behind. I think he will score goals if he stays fit and strong. I’d love to see him get a real run of games, just to give him the opportunity.”
A goal against Arsenal on Wednesday night would help Delap go some way to proving that he might not have been hasty to brush off the curse of Chelsea’s No 9.