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Enzo Maresca won’t be welcoming in the New Year full of optimism at Chelsea.

Indeed, the Italian is very much on a tight rope now when it comes to his long-term future in West London, with only one Premier League win coming his team’s way across their last seven league outings.

While the defence has now given up a concerning six goals across their last three games, Maresca will also be cursing the efforts of his attackers, too, with both Liam Delap and Joao Pedro struggling again versus the Cherries, leading to Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer having to put away the goals to secure a 2-2 draw.

Chelsea's ongoing centre-forward woes

A whopping £90m would be dropped on the services of the Englishman and the former Brighton and Hove Albion striker in the summer, off the back of the once potent pairing bagging 22 Premier League strikes between them last season.

Unfortunately, Delap has looked largely out of his depth leading the line for Chelsea, away from being a talismanic figure for a relegation-threatened Ipswich Town, with no top-flight goals next to his name for Maresca and Co. from ten league appearances.

One big chance would go begging from the ex-Manchester City youngster against Andoni Iraola’s men, with his equally lacklustre performance against Aston Villa earlier in the month seeing him fail to register a single meaningful effort at Emiliano Martinez’s well-protected net.

Pedro does, at least, have six Premier League strikes under his belt at Stamford Bridge, but he hasn’t been without his own set of issues, either, with regular barren patches of form seeing him come in and out of Maresca’s starting XI constantly.

For £60m, Chelsea fans just would have anticipated the Brazilian being more of a reliable source of goals than he has proven to be, with five top-flight games passing him by without a goal, before bagging two matches on the spin against Newcastle United and Aston Villa.

He also couldn’t steer the Blues to a late win when coming on as a substitute against the Cherries, as the powers that be at Stamford Bridge now possibly weigh up alternative strikers, away from Delap and Pedro, in January, with one red-hot centre-forward, in particular, sticking out.

Chelsea could now sign "one of Europe's most in-form CFs"

Chelsea have been linked to a whole host of exciting attacking names, with Antoine Semenyo once on their radar, before Manchester City stormed to the front of the queue.

Still, that doesn’t mean the Blues won’t be going after some other lethal targets, with a report earlier in December linking them to RC Strasbourg goal machine Joaquin Panichelli, who continues to light up Ligue 1 for Liam Rosenior’s men as an animal in front of goal.

While Delap has frustrated Chelsea fans ever since he made the move with his ineffective finishing, and Pedro has shown glimpses here and there of his goalscoring prowess, Panichelli has been exciting fans regularly at the Stade de la Meinau, with this audacious effort surely the pick of his Ligue 1 bunch for the campaign so far.

In total, nine goals have been fired home by the deadly Argentine from 16 league outings, with the South American only needing 32.3 touches on average this season to explode into life in front of goal.

Panichelli vs Delap & Pedro (25/26)

Stat – per 90 mins*

Panichelli

Delap

Pedro

Games played

16

10

19

Goals scored

9

0

6

Assists

0

0

3

Touches*

32.1

14.4

37.6

Shots*

2.4

1.5

1.6

Goal scoring frequency

146 mins

0 mins

242 mins

Goal conversion %

23%

0%

19%

Total duels won*

5.7

2.7

5.5

Stats by Sofascore

That is far from being the only impressive statistic that sticks out from the table above, with Panichelli finding the back of the net this season at a blistering frequency of every 146 minutes, as Pedro lags behind with a strike every 242 minutes on English shores.

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Moreover, while Pedro has stood out as a lively character up top for Chelsea this campaign in spurts with 5.5 duels won on average, his 6-foot-3 counterpart has won a slightly heftier 5.7 duels, which also trumps Delap’s own weak tally of 2.7.

Noted as being “one of Europe’s most in-form CFs” by scout Antonio Mango, this could be an earth-shuddering purchase for Chelsea in January, as they try to gain a new focal point attacker to push them up the standings.

Amazingly, Chelsea could even try to make this a double swoop, with Strasbourg boss Rosenior reportedly on their agenda as a potential Maresca replacement, as BlueCo prepare to use their connections.

With the former Hull City manager partly responsible for turning Panichelli into a “natural born killer” in front of goal, as per scout Jacek Kulig’s wild praise, it would be an outrageous move to win both the highly thought-of boss and the clinical striker in one window, as January goes down as being a potentially very busy month at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea have 'exceptional' manager already lined up if they sack Maresca

The Italian is under mounting pressure.

Posts ByEmilio Galantini

Sri Lanka will be without Lasith Malinga, their designated T20 captain, for the two-match series that culminates their New Zealand tour in January. Dinesh Chandimal, who led Sri Lanka in the format till Malinga took charge in 2014, has been named the stand-in captain.Opening batsman Danushka Gunathilaka and pacer Suranga Lakmal, who are part of the current ODI squad in New Zealand, have been named as replacements ahead of the T20 series that begins in Mount Maunganui on January 7.Malinga sustained a knee injury during the home series against West Indies in October-November and was initially deemed unavailable only for the five-match ODI series.Malinga’s absence is yet another setback to an inexperienced Sri Lanka team that is already missing the services of Dhammika Prasad and Kusal Perera. While Prasad flew back home before the first Test with a back injury, Perera was suspended by the ICC for failing a dope test.Sri Lanka lost both Tests on the tour, and are currently 2-0 down in the five-match ODI series.

Dav Whatmore: front runner for the vacancy © AFP

Two Australians, Dav Whatmore and John Dyson, are among the candidates to take over as head coach of the West Indies team, according to a report on caribbeancricket.com.Insiders suggest that Whatmore, who coached Sri Lanka to the World Cup in 1996 before stints with Lancashire and Bangladesh, is the favourite. He recently unsuccessfully applied for the post of Pakistan coach. Dyson also has experience with a national side, replacing Whatmore as Sri Lanka coach in 2003 before standing down in 2005.Of local candidates, former Zimbabwe and current Ireland coach Phil Simmons is believed to have applied, as have former KwaZulu-Natal coach Eldine Baptiste, incumbent assistant coaches David Williams and Hendy Springer, Durham’s fast bower and temporary England bowling coach Ottis Gibson, former Bermuda coach Mark Harper and Vincentian Ian Allen.The main question facing the West Indies board is whether to gamble on appointing a foreign coach following the problems that increasingly dogged Bennett King, the Australian who coached the side until he stood down after the World Cup. There remains a strong sentiment in the Caribbean that King’s replacement should come from within the region.It had been hinted that Roger Harper would apply, but he has not and is instead being linked with the post of coaching director at the West Indies Academy. Harper was Kenya’s coach between January 2006 and this month, but he stood down as he wanted to be closer to his family in Guyana.

Pakistan 485 and 13 for 1 beat West Indies 206 and 291(Lara 122, Chanderpaul 81, Gul 4-99) by 9 wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
West Indies how they were out

Brian Lara’s ton went in vain as Pakistan were the clear victors, thanks to their allround performance © Getty Images

Brian Lara’s brilliance shone brightly at the Gaddafi Stadium, but as hashappened so often in his career, the final outcome was yet another Testdefeat for West Indies, as Pakistan eased to a nine-wicket win to take a1-0 lead in the three-match series. Lara stroked a classy 122 and, withShivnarine Chanderpaul (81), threatened a West Indian revival, but hisdismissal sparked a familiar collapse, as Umar Gul finished with a matchhaul of nine wickets to leave Pakistan with the formality of scoring just13 to seal the victory.When play started this morning, West Indies’ fortunes were always likelyto hinge on Lara’s performance, and that’s exactly how it transpired.While Lara was going strong, with Chanderpaul offering him solid support,the pitch seemed to be a batting paradise and runs were scored at acanter. The moment Lara left, though, regular service resumed, thoughChanderpaul offered dogged resistance despite being unwell. Had it notbeen for some sloppy work by the close-in fielders and Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper, the match would have finished even earlier than it eventually did.Lara’s first-innings effort, by his own admission, wasn’t a fluent one,but here he was in charge from the first ball he faced. He had started offwith fours off the first two balls he faced yesterday, and wassimilarly in control from the start today. Driving exquisitely through theoff side, he repeatedly drilled boundaries with typical flourish – thefront foot going out in a huge stride, the bat coming down in a lovely arcand finishing up in a huge follow-through. He uncannily found the gapsalmost every time as well, ensured that the score kept moving and deniedPakistan the opportunity to attack with too many fielders around the bat.Lara’s was the key innings, but given West Indies’ plight at the start ofthe day, they needed more than a one-man act to make this a contest, andChanderpaul filled the support role perfectly. He was solid in defence,and yet didn’t miss out on scoring opportunities, easing the ball into thegaps on both sides of the wicket. He struggled to combat dehydration afterlunch and regularly needed medical attention on the field, but he hung on,not bothered by the number of times Gul passed the outside edge of hisbat, or by the reprieve handed to him by Akmal, who missed a regulationstumping when Chanderpaul was on 56. Till he finally miscued a pull offShahid Nazir, West Indies were in contention to at least stretch thecontest into the final day.Pakistan’s bowlers had a mixed day – Gul was outstanding, getting plentyof seam movement and some reverse swing later in the afternoon to troubleChanderpaul. Nazir was steady, Danish Kaneria quite disappointing, whileAbdul Razzaq was pedestrian. Nazir gave them the early breakthrough bygetting rid of the nightwatchman Fidel Edwards, but thereafter there waslittle for them to celebrate for the next three hours as Lara andChanderpaul took charge.Lara began proceedings by clipping and steering the fast bowlers forfours, and that set the trend for the morning. Each of his landmarks camein style too: a glorious straight-drive off Gul brought Lara his fifty,and he crashed the same bowler off the back foot through point to get tohis 33rd Test century, and his first in Pakistan. Though he was the bestbowler on view, Gul clearly came off second-best against Lara, going for47 runs from 56 balls.As the partnership grew, so too did Pakistan’s frustration: there wereregular appeals against Lara, and while most of them didn’t have muchmerit, one – an lbw shout off Shoaib Malik, when Lara was on 80 – shouldclearly have been given. The deficit was getting whittled in quick timewhen Hafeez – who had earlier dropped a tough chance from Lara – got oneto pitch, straighten and beat his attempted sweep. Simon Taufel agreedthat the ball would have hit the stumps, and Pakistan finally had theirman.With the biggest barrier out of the way, Pakistan moved in for the kill.Gul took care of Dwayne Bravo while Denesh Ramdin became Kaneria’s onlyvictim of the innings. The second new ball then took care of the lastthree wickets, with Chanderpaul finally miscuing a pull after a gutsy178-ball effort. Gul was denied his second five-for of the match, butfinished off the West Indian innings.Pakistan were made to work harder than they would have thought to get tothe target of 13 – Hafeez fell for 1, and more than five overs were bowled- but those were small crumbs as Pakistan pocketed the big prize.

Tryphon Mirando – 1954-2005© Cricinfo

Tryphon Mirando, secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket’s interim committee died suddenly in London on Sunday. Mirando, 51 was visiting his wife and children when he suffered a massive heart attack. According to sources, he was rushed to hospital but it was too late.A Royal College alumnus, Mirando was a long standing member of Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club. He was a livewire at the club, being a former president and a past secretary. A charming personality, Mirando was also a good choir singer.At the time of his death, he was marketing director of Janashakthi Insurance Company Ltd and a director at Kotmale Company.

David Morgan: denied leaning on players© Getty Images

England have not yet arrived in Zimbabwe for the five-match one-day series that few of their players seem to have any appetite for, but David Morgan, the ECB’s chairman, yesterday said that there was every chance that England would be back there soon to play Tests.Morgan, who is accompanying the England side to Zimbabwe, made his comments as the team arrived for a short period of acclimatisation in Namibia. He told The Guardian that Zimbabwe’s impending return to the Test arena meant that England would “have to return to play two Tests at some stage, as will Australia.” He added: “We will be in discussions with Zimbabwe Cricket about when that will happen during the course of this tour.”He also denied suggestions that the board had leant on players to persuade them not to back out of the tour. “I made it absolutely clear to the coach, captain and the other players that anybody for reasons of personal conscience who did not wish to go to Zimbabwe would not be penalised,” he said. “Is that leaning on players?”

A maiden century from Neil Edwards took Somerset to within 61 runs of Hampshire’s first innings total by the end of a run-filled second day on a typically flat Taunton wicket.Hampshire added 95 more runs falling just five runs short of a rare maximum batting points with the limping Robin Smith posting an unbeaten half century (56*) from 95 balls including eight fours and a six as he and Shaun Udal (30)moved the visitors close to 400.Steffan Jones cleaned up the tail with 4-102.But as the wicket flattened out, bowling became more and more difficult although Hampshire, with Dimitri Mascarenhas and Lawrence Prittipaul the main culprits, bowling particularly poorly as Cornishman Edwards, in just his fourth first-class match and with a previous best of just 45, tucked in with glee.Edwards and James Bryant (73) added 147 before the latter became a surprise victim to Derek Kenway with his first ball of the season. It is just his fourth first-class wicket!The youngster hit 160 from just 184 balls – it showed how easy paced the wicket was and how poorly some of the bowlers had performed. Bournemouth-based Tom Webley and Ian Blackwell saw the home side to 338-4 by close of play.Neither side will want to give much away, so the draw could be the most likely result on this most placid of pitches.

England have now had over a day to rue the first innings collapse that allowed the Indian batsmen to get on with the job of slowly overtaking the inadequate total. The way those batsmen have gone about their task, there is no reason to believe that England will not have a considerable length of time yet to contemplate further the folly of losing six wickets for 14 runs.That is to take nothing away from the discipline of their bowling that, formuch of the day, kept the scoring rate hovering just above the two an over mark. To say that all they had to show for their efforts were the wickets ofa nightwatchman and a makeshift opener is not giving due credit to for a brave performance.Anil Kumble played the role of nightwatchman to perfection. The opening overs of the day are reckoned to be the time when conditions are most favourable for pace bowling. Kumble navigated his side through those dangerous times and, with every ball he faced, he was drawing fire from the bowlers and helping the ball itself to deteriorate from its pristine condition.Matthew Hoggard, James Ormond, Andrew Flintoff and even Mark Butcher had been given a go with the ball when Nasser Hussain made a double change. Craig White made an appearance in the attack at one end, debutant Richard Dawson at the other.Dawson saw no great degree of turn, but did see the ball bounce to his liking as a 6′ 4″ off-spinner. It was his twelfth ball in Test cricket that Kumble attempted to cut, got a thickish edge and James Foster, also making his first appearance in a Test match, safely did the rest. There was much jubilation in the England camp. It was as well that they could celebrate then, for the next opportunity to do so was a long way down the track.Rahul Dravid joined Deep Dasgupta, the wicket-keeper who only took the opening berth in an emergency and who continued in his slow and careful way. He had no need and possibly not the repertoire to force the pace. Dravid too was watchful, with the English bowlers displaying an admirable discipline.Hoggard got a ball to lift and come back to strike Dravid a painful blow on the elbow when he had three and, with 30 added to his personal tally, there was every reason for Dravid for leave the field for good. The batsman played at Flintoff as the ball went down the leg side, touched it through to Foster’s left glove and from there to the floor. The tariff has yet to be finalised.Dasgupta had moved to a cautious fifty from 159 balls. It was an invaluableinnings if not, perhaps a memorable one for the quality of attacking strokes. But who would question the value of a sound defence in an opener? That defence faltered when he had 75 when Flintoff was again the bowler and, this time, Butcher the culprit in the slips.By now, after tea, the batsmen were beginning to lift the tempo. Dravid moved to his fifty from 126 balls with a glorious straight drive off Hoggard. Dasgupta’s response was to slice the same bowler to the third man boundary to bring up his hundred. Playing in only his third Test and his first on home soil, the 24 year-old had taken 82 overs to get there but he was the hero of the hour as the scoreboard showed him on exactly 100.The concentration might have slipped for a moment at this point, entirelyunderstandably it should be said, for that scoreboard had no reason to change before White found a straight one that might have come back just a little to bowl Dasgupta. Makeshift opener or not, he had done a wonderful job for his side and deserved the generous applause from a crowd that could have been thanking him for his efforts and for getting out when he did.The fall of his wicket allowed Sachin Tendulkar to come to the middle. Hussain had not taken the new ball, delaying it until there were nine overs of the day remaining. Flintoff had the thrill of seeing the outside edge of the little master passed twice, and with consecutive balls, no less.However, as the natural light faded and the floodlights were brought on, they only served to illuminate India’s firm grasp on the game. Although the bowlers kept going valiantly to produce a set of highly commendable figures in terms of economy, the thought of Dravid resuming on 78 and Tendulkar on 31 on a fine surface for batting should give them food for thought.An inexperienced attack might well be in position to learn an awful lot on the third day unless it strikes quickly and consistently. India lead by 24 with seven wickets in hand, Dravid and Tendulkar at the crease and power to add.

Ian Harvey Photo © AllSport

Ian Harvey is determined to shed his reputation as a specialist one-dayplayer and become highly regarded in all forms of cricket.The Gloucestershire all-rounder is particularly renowned for his ability tobowl tightly at the death in limited overs games, a skill which has helpedhis county win three successive Lord’s final.But when he puts his mind to it Harvey can be pretty economical in four-daycricket too, as Warwickshire found to their cost after winning the toss inexcellent batting conditions at Cheltenham.The visitors must have been rubbing their hands, bearing in mind Northants’500-plus total at the same venue last week and the fact that Gloucestershirehad lost their last three Championship games at the College Ground.But the home bowlers had been given a gee-up by coach John Bracewell andWarwickshire had to fight for virtually every run before being bowled outfor a disappointing 260 with the last ball of the day.Harvey returned Championship-best figures of 5-29 from 23 overs and receivedparticularly good support from Ben Gannon (3-62) and Martyn Ball (2-53).Gloucs bowlers – credit and good controlBut all the Gloucestershire bowlers performed with credit from the startwhen Gannon and Jon Lewis saw to it that only 14 runs came from the first 11overs by showing good control with the new ball.The home side had surprisingly chosen to leave out Mike Smith and play anextra batsman in Imran Mohammed. Soon Harvey was ensuring the decision wouldbe vindicated.Coming on as first change, he first succeeded in tying down the batsmen,sending down nine overs before lunch at a cost of just three runs andremoving opener Michael Powell for 25.The second session brought the Australian more reward with 3-14 from eightovers as Warwickshire tumbled from 107-1 to 164-5.Harvey made liberal use of the short ball to deter batsmen from playingforward and looked quite sharp at times on a true pitch. He was backed up bygood fielding and scoring never looked easy.Mark Wagh (59) and David Hemp (58) both had to graft for their runs. ForHemp it was his first Championship half century since the second week in Mayand the innings occupied more than three hours.Warwicks batting faltersOpener Wagh took 115 balls to reach his fifty, showing commendableapplication to try and lay the foundation for a big total. Sadly forWarwickshire, his concentration was not matched by the later batsmen.After Hemp and a confident Ashley Giles, whose 37 included a six and 5fours, had helped take the score to 223-5 the innings folded for just 37more runs.Skipper Neil Smith was among those to sacrifice his wicket to a rash shot,skying off-spinner Ball to Chris Taylor, while Hemp’s effort ended with acatch by the same fielder at long-leg when he top-edged a hook off Gannon.Allan Donald looked none too pleased to be adjudged caught off bat and padto give Ball his second wicket and the smiles were on Gloucestershire faceswhen the players left the field.

Ange Postecoglou has dropped an exciting injury update on Celtic centre-forward Kyogo Furuhashi.

What’s the latest?

In comments made to BBC Sportsound (via 67hailhail) following Celtic’s 2-1 victory over Rangers on Sunday afternoon, the 56-year-old Bhoys boss revealed that, despite pre-match reports suggesting that the 27-year-old would be available for selection in the Old Firm meeting, the Japan international was left out of the Hoops’ matchday squad as a precaution.

However, the Greek-Australian head coach went on to state that the striker will be back in the team for the visit of St. Johnstone this weekend.

Speaking about Kyogo’s return, Postecoglou said: “He’ll be fine [for St. Johnstone]. He was desperate to play today but when I looked at our run-in we’ve got some massive games. He’s such an important player for us and I thought today we could handle it without him.

“To be fair he tried everything. Everywhere I turned he popped up in front of me to make sure I knew he was ready to go. I couldn’t walk around Lennoxtown without seeing him! But we’ll keep him on ice. He’s ready to go, he’ll be fine and he’ll be involved next week.”

Brilliant news for Celtic

Considering how important a part of the Celtic side Kyogo has become since his move to Parkhead last summer, Postecoglou’s claim that the centre-forward will make a return to first-team football on Saturday is undoubtedly brilliant news for the club.

Indeed, over his 14 Premiership appearances in the current campaign, the £4.95m-rated goal-getter has been in devastating form, bagging eight goals, providing two assists and creating four big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 2.1 shots and making 1.1 key passes per game – with these returns seeing the Japanese sensation average a highly impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.03.

The £52.5k-per-week striker also impressed over his five Europa League outings this season, scoring two goals, providing two assists and creating two big chances for his teammates, with these metrics seeing the 27-year-old average an even more remarkable SofaScore match rating of 7.10.

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As such, with Celtic knowing that four more wins from their last six league fixtures will all but seal the Premiership title, it is clear for all to see that the news a player as deadly as Kyogo will be available for selection for these games is a huge boost to the Bhoys’ chances of being crowned the champions of Scotland once again.

AND in other news: £3m wasted: Celtic had a shocker on £7.9k-p/w “loner” who rinsed Desmond for 129 weeks