The Brighton 'born goalscorer' wanted by Chelsea is massively out-performing his xG – how he compares with Tottenham, West Ham and Man City stars

Chelsea are keen to sign Brighton striker Evan Ferguson, according to the www.standard.co.uk

The path from Brighton to Chelsea has been a well-trodden route in recent seasons and Brighton fans would probably feel that overall they have emerged better off as a result of their recent dealings.

Moises Caicedo (£115m), Marc Cucurella (£63m), Rob Sanchez (£26m) and even manager Graham Potter and his backroom team (£21m) have joined Chelsea to varying degrees of success.

Brighton however continue to do pretty well. They remain above Chelsea in the league and replaced Cucurella with Pervis Estupinan (£15m), Sanchez with Jason Steel (free), Potter with Roberto De Zerbi (free), while ex-Chelsea man Billy Gilmour (£8m) has been superb in midfield for the Seagulls in place of Caicedo.

Nevertheless, Chelsea apparently want yet another of Brighton’s talent in Ferguson, as the Blues have been frustrated in their attempts to lure striker Ivan Toney from Brentford and Victor Osimhen from Napoli.

Ferguson, 18, is seen as one the brightest attacking talents in the Premier League and, having just signed a new contract that ties him to the Seagulls until 2029, he would be seriously expensive.

Former England striker Gary Linker previously posted: “He’s a born goalscorer. If I was in charge of recruitment at @SpursOfficial I’d take a punt on him as Kane’s replacement. Apologies to @OfficialBHAFC fans."

While BBC pundit Alan Shearer stated: “I love everything about him, what I’ve seen. The hold-up play, his desire to get into the box, his strength. Very impressive.”

Manchester United were previously keen on the Ireland international and last summer Tottenham considered making their move as a replacement for Harry Kane, who moved to Bayern Munich.

Ferguson has had a few injury issues this term but has six Premier League goals to his name so far, including an excellent hat-trick against Newcastle. In short this rumour looks an absolute non-starter, especially for this January as Brighton have zero reason to sell and Chelsea are battling FFP, which could as yet see them lose Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah.

But just to highlight what Chelsea could be missing out on… Here’s the latest figures on this season’s top five overperformers, including Ferguson, courtesy of www.networldsports.co.uk

1. Son Heung-Min (Tottenham) 20 appearances, 12 goals, xG 7.47, xG +/- -4.53. 2. Mo Kudus (West Ham) 16 appearances, 6 goals, xG 1.82, xG +/- -4.18. 3. Hwag Hee-Chan (Wolves) 20 appearances, 10 goals, xG 6.79, xG +/- -3.21. 4. Bernardo Silva (Man City) 16 appearances, 5 goals, xG 2.04, xG +/- -2.96. 5. Evan Ferguson (Brighton) 18 appearances, 6 goals, xG 3.12, xG +/- -2.88.