Chelsea fans all fear the worst as Joao Pedro is given unlucky No9 shirt – but can he finally break the curse?

JOAO PEDRO needs to become a spellbreaker at Chelsea after being given the No9 shirt at Stamford Bridge. Liam Delap was subject to the ‘No9 curse’ in blue, and has now had the shirt snatched from his back by the Brazilian. Joao Pedro is changing from No20 to No9 at Stamford Bridge Credit: Alamy He’s taking the ‘cursed’ shirt number from Liam Delap Credit: Reuters The ‘curse’ dates back to 1999, when Chris Sutton took on the shirt, and although Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink managed 87 goals in 177 matches for Chelsea wearing No9, more than a dozen others have struggled. Didier Drogba and Diego Costa have been Chelsea’s two best strikers of the 21st century but they wore the numbers 15, 11, and 19, respectively. Sign up for the Football newsletter Thank you! Dream Team is back, free, and there’s £100,000 up for grabs! Pedro seems perfectly placed to break the curse after scoring 15 non-penalty goals for Chelsea last season. And if he is to do so he will be the first in a long list of flops to be considered a total success, with some faring better than others before him, but none considered in the same breath as Costa or Drogba. SunSport Chelsea reporter Lloyd Canfield has looked into all those who have worn it since the days of Gianluca Vialli and Hasselbaink – the last really good Blues No9s. LIAM DELAP Delap, like many before him, backed himself to thrive in the shirt and insisted he didn’t believe in the curse when he arrived from Ipswich last summer. One Premier League goal and a season later, he’s been involved in more fights than goals, and he will not wear No12 should he stay in SW6. While his Chelsea career isn’t over yet, the club would sell him if a bid came in that allowed them to turn a decent profit. BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS PIERRE-EMERICK AUBAMEYANG One of Arsenal‘s finest strikers of the modern era, he joined Chelsea after scoring 11 goals in 18 games for Barcelona. Most read in Sport That form didn’t carry over though, and he scored one league goal in a 2–1 away win against Crystal Palace, as well as a brace against AC Milan in the Champions League before terminating his contract and going on to be a success at Marseille. ROMELU LUKAKU If it wasn’t for THAT interview, there is a chance we would be talking about Romelu Lukaku as the man who ended the number nine curse. He had a promising start to life after returning to Stamford Bridge, but then it all went wrong when he decided that Thomas Tuchel had “chosen to play with another system”, comparing the team’s tactics with those at Inter, where he was hoping to return. He ended his Chelsea career with eight goals in 26 games. Romelu Lukaku was a victim of the curse Credit: PA TAMMY ABRAHAM Abraham is one of two players on this list who could be considered a success in their time at Chelsea. Admittedly, coming from the academy, he didn’t have the same pressure on his shoulders as those who had been signed for mega money, but he put up good numbers in a Chelsea shirt with 21 goals in 58 games as a young forward making his name in the Prem. GONZALO HIGUAIN Joined on loan, reuniting him with Maurizio Sarri under whom he thrived at Napoli. Five goals in 14 games wasn’t an awful return, but it was less than expected of a top tier striker in Europe. ALVARO MORATA A promising striker from Real Madrid, he joined Stamford Bridge for a club-record fee of £60 million after scoring 15 goals in 26 games for his boyhood club. He bagged 16 goals in 47 games for the Blues, but was considered a flop by most, especially for a club record fee. Morata was a club record signing at Stamford Bridge when he joined Credit: AFP or licensors RADAMEL FALCAO He had already flopped at Manchester United before joining Chelsea on loan from Monaco, scoring only once in 10 games. FERNANDO TORRES Alongside Abraham, Torres is the other player you could argue had a successful career at Chelsea, though he didn’t live up to the billing. Despite disappointing more often than not after joining for a then record fee of £50 million from Liverpool, he scored a vital goal for the Blues in the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona, as well as a goal in the Europa League final. Ultimately, 20 goals in 110 league games was underwhelming. Fernando Torres underwhelmed at Chelsea, despite some important goals Credit: Getty FRANCO DI SANTO He didn’t score a single goal in eight games for the Blues – underwhelming. STEVE SIDWELL Didn’t score a single goal in 15 games… In fairness, he was a midfielder wearing the shity, but still disappointed a little before being sold to Aston Villa. KHALID BOULAHROUZ Another whose position sees him done slightly dirty by wearing the shirt, given that he was a defender. It was given to him because it happened to be one of the numbers not currently allocated to a player by Chelsea when he joined. Despite a promising start to his career he picked up a few injuries before being replaced by John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho. Chelsea’s number nine curse laid bare HERNAN CRESPO He was solid for Chelsea in fairness, with 20 league goals in 49 games, winning the Premier League title in the process. He is fondly remembered by most as a high-class, technically gifted striker – but he could and probably should have reached higher heights than what he did in blue. MATEJA KEZMAN Following on from the successes of Hasselbaink, Mateja Kezman was poor. He scored seven Premier League goals in 41 appearances, though he did bag a decisive extra-time winner in the League Cup final against Liverpool. Comment now