Owen Hargreaves names the two signings Chelsea need to win the Premier League | Football

Owen Hargreaves has named the two signings Chelsea need to take the next step and win the Premier League or Champions League.

The Blues finished fourth in the Premier League last season, 15 points behind champions Liverpool.

Enzo Maresca’s side threatened to push Liverpool all the way during an impressive first-half to the season but fell away after Christmas.

Chelsea beat the likes of PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich to win the Club World Cup over the summer and also enjoyed a productive transfer window, spending over £300m on new signings.

The Stamford Bridge board hoped the new additions would help Chelsea challenge for the Premier League title this season but that already looks doubtful.

Chelsea have won two, drawn two and lost two of their first six games in the league, slipping seven points behind defending champions and early pacesetters Liverpool.

In the Champions League, the west Londoners have six points after two games, following up an opening defeat to Bayern Munich with a narrow win over Jose Mourinho’s Benfica.

Despite Chelsea’s incredible spending in recent years, Hargreaves is still of the belief that a ‘world-class goalkeeper’ and an ‘experienced centre-back’ is needed for the Blues to win major silverware.

‘If Chelsea want to go and win the Premier League and the Champions League, they need a world-class keeper and an experienced centre-back,’ Hargreaves told TNT Sports.

‘For the centre-back, a player like (PSG and Brazil legend) Marquinhos to help these young players along the way.’

Joe Cole agreed that Chelsea would benefit from strengthening in those two positions but warned that the club’s owners are unlikely to deviate from their current transfer strategy.

‘That’s what everyone wanted,’ said Stamford Bridge hero Cole in response to Hargreaves’ assessment.

‘What the club are trying to do is work and develop young players. That’s all well and good.

‘They’re waiting for Robert Sanchez to come to the level, he did have a good Club World Cup and started the season well before that red card (in the defeat to Manchester United).

‘Chelsea fans need to get their heads around this because the club are going down this route and are going to stick with it.’

A number of pundits have speculated that Chelsea will struggle to compete for the Premier League or Champions League without a new goalkeeper.

Jamie Carragher says it was a big mistake not to sign a replacement for Robert Sanchez over the summer, especially as the club held talks with France goalkeeper Mike Maignan and knew Gianluigi Donnarumma was available.

‘The glaring flaws last season were in goal and at centre-half,’ Carragher wrote in a column for The Telegraph. ‘Despite 12 new arrivals over the summer, those areas remain the Achilles’ heel.

‘Chelsea were linked with AC Milan’s French keeper Mike Maignan, but the message was they were not prepared to pay more than £12m. Why not?

‘Manchester City showed what ambitious clubs do when an obvious issue needs sorting out, signing Gianluigi Donnarumma.

‘Why were Chelsea not part of the conversation for the PSG keeper? He could have been a transformative signing for them.’

After returning to winning ways against Benfica, Chelsea will look to clinch their first Premier League win since August 30 this weekend when Liverpool visit Stamford Bridge.

Liverpool won their first seven games of the season before suffering rare back-to-back defeats to Crystal Palace in the Premier League and Galatasaray in the Champions League.

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