Chelsea fans must have been a little surprised earlier this week when transfer rumours linked them to Aston Villa’s Jhon Duran.
Jhon Duran, who’s just 20, is an exciting young striker playing for the Premier League’s surprise packages. However, he’s currently operating as the back-up option at Villa Park for Ollie Watkins.
Journalist Nathan Gissing reported via X on Monday that Chelsea have discussed internally Duran’s name as a potential short-term option for the No 9 position.
Photo by Neville Williams/Aston Villa FC via Getty Images
Duran is still a relative unknown to most fans in England, with most of his appearances coming off the bench since he joined Villa a year ago.
The young striker has actually been as a substitute in all 14 of his Premier League appearances this term, but he still possesses one very eye-catching statistic.
Remarkably, Duran is averaging 6.2 shots per 90 minutes in the league this campaign. That puts him top of the pile in the entire division.
FotMob records the statistic of the most shots per 90 in the Premier League this season:
6.2 – Jhon Duran (Aston Villa)4.7 – Darwin Nunez (Liverpool)4.2 – Arnaut Danjuma (Everton)4.0 – Erling Haaland (Manchester City)3.9 – Callum Wilson (Newcastle United), David Brooks (Bournemouth), Beto (Everton)3.8 – Harvey Elliott (Liverpool)3.7 – Richarlison (Tottenham)3.6 – Eberechi Eze (Crystal Palace)3.5 – Noni Madueke (Chelsea), Dominic Solanke (Bournemouth), Luis Sinisterra (Bournemouth), Antoine Semenyo (Bournemouth)
Chelsea target Jhon Duran
Of course, Duran’s shots per 90 minutes is taken across a small sample size. It’s refreshing to hear there’s no other player in the league that shoots on site like him.
We’re still very much inclined to hope that Chelsea do look elsewhere and find a proven centre-forward with a track record of scoring lots of goals. It’s what Mauricio Pochettino’s side is crying out for right now.
As for Duran, it would be great to see Villa’s young forward go elsewhere to play regular minutes.
He could be a big star for the future in years to come, but Chelsea have already put too much responsibility into developing youngsters.
