With Pedro and Hazard, Chelsea could have their most formidable wide duo since Duff and Robben

Wing men: Robben and Duff starred in back to back title wins for Chelsea
Simon Johnson20 August 2015

As Jose Mourinho picked up the phone to convince Pedro to join Chelsea earlier this week, he knew this was a great chance to find a solution to a problem that has undermined the club for nearly a decade.

Not since the exhilarating days of Damien Duff and Arjen Robben have Chelsea owned two wingers capable of causing havoc against opposition defences across the country.

Between 2004-06, the duo were virtually unplayable as Mourinho let them off the leash, with Joe Cole proving to be a worthy support act, and back-to-back titles were secured. Nearly £200million has been spent on replacements since then to find the perfect partners in crime to do it again.

Many players have tried and failed. Of the current generation, Eden Hazard has proved to be a one-man show and he had already had a season at the club before Mourinho returned in 2013.

When it comes to buying wide players, Mourinho’s record leaves much to be desired. Duff and Robben were also already in place when he arrived at Stamford Bridge first time around in 2004 and the 52-year-old has spent a fortune trying to replicate the magic.

Few Chelsea fans can forget the £21m wasted on Shaun Wright-Phillips in 2005, while Salomon Kalou was one of those ‘marmite’ characters among the fanbase, despite his seven winners’ medals. The last signing of his opening spell in west London, Florent Malouda, impressed for only a few seasons during a six-year vigil.

In the Special One’s absence, cheaper buys were attempted. Marko Marin and Victor Moses both failed to make their mark despite still being on the club’s books.

Since inheriting the exciting skills of Hazard, a £32m signing from Lille in 2012, Mourinho has spent big again to find an accomplice. In the past two seasons, £85m has been paid out for Willian, Andre Schurrle, Mohamed Salah and Juan Cuadrado and only the former still has a future at the club.

Even then, Willian is more renowned for work-rate rather than flair on the right-hand side. A meagre eight goals is not much of a return on an outlay of £30m and increases the pressure on Hazard on the left flank.

So what is it about £21m buy Pedro that Mourinho believes will provide Chelsea more of a threat? Firstly, the 28-year-old’s ability to find the net is impressive. He’s hit 99 goals since opening his account for Barcelona in 2009.

But it is the priceless knack of scoring in big games, including the Champions League Final victory of Manchester United in 2011, that will particularly excite.

In the 2009-10 campaign, he became the first player to score in six different competitions in the same year (La Liga, Copa del Rey, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, Uefa Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup).

Of course, Chelsea will also be hoping he can provide assists for others and with so much pace, Pedro is more than capable of taking on a full-back and delivering a cross for the likes of Spain team-mate Diego Costa.

Clearly his arrival will give Mourinho more options to attack and perhaps free up more space for Hazard.

Chelsea wide boys: How they fared

1/9

He is a serial winner, too, with 20 trophies acquired at Barcelona, plus a World Cup and European Championship with Spain.

Thierry Henry, who played with Pedro at the Nou Camp between 2007-10, has no doubt he will make an impact in the Premier League. Henry said: “The perfect team-mate, the perfect professional — he is that guy. He can adapt to the English system, he won’t have to learn, he will understand staying wide, putting pressure and all that type of thing from the front.

“I think he can be a success. It depends on how the team is going to gel and how he has to adapt to the Premier League. But he is definitely a great team-mate t

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in