Andriy Shevchenko is no Chelsea flop - he just needs more time

‘Form is temporary, but class is permanent’ - or so the saying goes. But this is something that most people seem to have forgotten when dealing with Chelsea’s most expensive acquisition, Andriy Shevchenko.

In all honesty, it would take the most blinkered Chelsea fan to try to argue that Sheva’s performances have been anything but underwhelming so far this season. But to write him off as an expensive flop is foolish.

I understand Chelsea have a track record in this department (Juan Sebastian Veron, Adrian Mutu and Shaun Wright-Phillips to name a few), which might make fans a little jittery, but I don’t think this will happen to Shevchenko. The difference is his past record. It is second to none and you don’t go from being arguably the most lethal finisher in Europe to a washed-up has-been overnight.

He is a former European Footballer of the Year, second highest goalscorer in European competition ever and has netted an amazing 190 goals in 346 career appearances to date. In all fairness to Sheva, he has also scored nine times this season, which might be below his incredible high standards but isn’t actually too bad a record.