Ranking seven Chelsea players who could play as striker with Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu unavailable

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Chelsea now finds themselves in a tricky situation with zero out-and-out strikers available in their senior squad.

All eyes will be on Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca to see how he copes without both Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu for a period of time.

Maresca delivered an injury update on Chelsea strikers Jackson and Guiu, which is bad news for the team. Jackson, who’s been the Blues first-choice centre-forward this season, is set to be sidelined until April. Meanwhile, Guiu is unavailable “for a while” with his own injury problem.

We’ve taken a look at seven different potential options that Maresca could use instead to lead the line…

7 – Tyrique George

Blues winger Tyrique George, 19, sits at the bottom of the seven-man shortlist to fill the void in the striker position.

Even though Maresca has mentioned Chelsea youngster George as an option up front, we’re strongly against the idea.

The diminutive teenage attacker is still relatively new to the first-team environment as he tries to adapt to senior football on the left wing. Therefore, it could be pretty unfair to ask him to do a job as the No.9.

6 – Pedro Neto

Next, Pedro Neto is another wide man at the club that could shift more centrally to cover the gap in the starting XI.

Many Chelsea fans have suggested playing Neto at striker to cope with the injury crisis, which is something he’s done briefly earlier in his career with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

However, the 24-year-old speedster is another small figure we struggle to imagine doing to well spearheading the attack.

5 – Noni Madueke

Like above, Noni Madueke is a Chelsea winger who could look massively out of place as a centre-forward.

The only thing going in the 22-year-old’s favour is that he’s at least proven he can find the back of the net a bit more regularly, scoring eight goals across all competitions so far this season.

4 – Deivid Washington

Chelsea youngster Deivid Washington, 19, is at least a centre-forward by trade who could attempt to cover in attack.

Washington was expected to rejoin Santos on loan in the winter, but that transfer news went quiet.

The Brazilian’s played three first-team games in Chelsea colours before, so could he be a surprise option?

3 – Shumaira Mheuka

Next, Shumaira Mheuka is a highly-rated youngster developing in the Chelsea academy.

The 17-year-old centre-forward made his first-team debut in December in the Conference League group phase, but he’s mainly been scoring goals and impressing for the Blues Under-21s team.

Of course, it would be a major step up to ask him to fill the shoes of Jackson and Guiu. The fact that he’s a recognised striker should make him someone that Maresca considers. At the very least, he should be training with the main group on a regular basis right now.

2 – Cole Palmer

We wouldn’t be too keen on moving Cole Palmer away from a No.10 role where he’s been brilliant this season, but there’s a good chance he could cover at striker better than most of his teammates.

Many Chelsea fans believe Palmer could shine as a forward after Maresca suggested it’s a potential option. It would certainly be a big call to move the 22-year-old talisman’s starting position on the pitch, but the manager may need to think outside of the box.

1 – Christopher Nkunku

Christopher Nkunku started at striker last weekend for Chelsea in their FA Cup defeat to Brighton. Even though it’s clearly not his best position, we’d probably persist with him again in that role for the meantime.

He’s scored 13 goals across all competitions so far this season for the Blues, which highlights that he’s pretty dangerous in front of goal.

For Maresca, his instruction to Nkunku should be to resist his natural urge to drop deeper to get on the football. Instead, he’s got to try stretch the play in behind, plus regularly occupy the opposition’s penalty box.