Chelsea have made their position clear on Emmanuel Emegha, with the club now expected to keep him in Xabi Alonso\u2019s striker group this season alongside Jo\u00e3o Pedro and Danny Welbeck.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old only recently completed his agreed move from Strasbourg, where he produced 31 goals in 78 appearances in all competitions. His transfer to Chelsea was put in place last September and scheduled for this summer, but there had been uncertainty over whether he would be sent out on loan straight away. Chelsea\u2019s smaller schedule in 2026-27, with involvement in only three competitions, also left room for debate about how much space would be available in the squad.<\/p>\n
That discussion has now been settled in Emegha\u2019s favour. A hamstring injury prevented him from making a preseason case for selection, yet The Athletic reports that he has returned to training and will be \u201cpart of the squad\u201d Alonso wants to push back up the Premier League table.<\/p>\n
The same cannot be said for Liam Delap and Nicolas Jackson, both of whom are among the players viewed as surplus and available to leave on loan or permanently. The wider group also includes Mykhailo Mudryk, Tosin Adarabioyo, Mamadou Sarr, Aar\u00f3n Anselmino, Marc Guiu, Axel Disasi, Teddy Sharman-Lowe, Omari Kellyman, David Datro Fofana, Caleb Wiley and Deivid Washington.<\/p>\n
Delap, who came through Manchester City\u2019s academy after joining at 16 from Derby County, scored 12 Premier League goals for a relegated Ipswich side in 2024-25. Still only 23, with his 24th birthday coming next February, he remains a forward with obvious potential, even if his Chelsea season was uneven and discipline was an issue.<\/p>\n
A move to a club where he would start regularly may suit him best, with Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United, Everton, Leeds United and Tottenham Hotspur all linked. Newcastle have struggled to replace Alexander Isak, Everton have not had a Premier League striker reach double figures since Richarlison in 2021-22, and Forest face questions over the age and fitness of Chris Wood, while Taiwo Awoniyi has already moved to Coventry City.<\/p>\n
Jackson has also returned from loan at Bayern Munich after the conditional obligation to buy was not triggered. He remains, at his best, a steady if unspectacular centre-forward, having averaged 12 Premier League goals a season across two years at Chelsea and also scored 12 for Villarreal in La Liga. BBC Sport reported interest from Aston Villa this week, where he would reunite with Unai Emery, in what is seen as a \u201cmore viable option\u201d than Atl\u00e9tico Madrid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea have settled Emmanuel Emegha\u2019s role, leaving Liam Delap and Nicolas Jackson facing uncertain futures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172,1125],"tags":[242,180,182],"class_list":["post-18586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","category-strikers","tag-injury","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}