Last season when Jose Mourinho was caught on camera joking about the supposed age of striker Samuel Eto'o he made a very telling statement about his opinion of his team's strength. "I have a team but no striker. It is not possible for us to win the Premier League." With some justification the Special One felt that Chelsea's lack of firepower up front was the reason for his first trophyless season as a Chelsea manager. After all, Demba Ba was simply not good enough, Fernando Torres is a mere shadow of the player who once tormented defenses and Samuel Eto'o (whilst only 33) wasn't capable of week in week out excellence.

To prove this point Chelsea's three striking options only combined for 19 goals last season. Hardly, the stroking options that will allow a team to launch a successful title challenge. I say "some justification" though because, it was clear that Chelsea's biggest problem last season was not the form of Torres, Eto'o and Ba but the lack of clear goalscoring chances that the team created as a whole.

As of mid-march last season Chelsea had created just 37 "clear goalscoring chances" i.e. 'sitters'. Compare this against Liverpool's 67, Manchester City's 61 and Arsenal's 50 and you can see some of the reason why the striker's struggled last season. Mourinho was of course aware of this which is why Chelsea's best away performances against Liverpool and Manchester City were based on defending in depth and counter-attacking swiftly.

Come the summer transfer window though and Chelsea have acted swiftly to fix these weaknesses. Firstly, they brought Cesc Fabregas back to the Premier League for around £30 million. Few if any players in world football possess Fabregas' creativity. Last season Fabregas had the second most assists in La Liga (13) and led the league for the most accurate through balls.

Perhaps most crucially for Chelsea though Fabregas also has experience of playing to a high standard in the Premier League. He shouldn't struggle to adapt to the Premier League.

Not content with just adding creativity though Mourinho also engineered a major upgrade to his forward options in the form of Brazilian/Spaniard Diego Costa.

Costa's 27 goals last season led Atletico to the Spanish title ahead of big boys Real Madrid and Barcelona. Costa should add plenty of firepower to the Chelsea attack. More than this though Costa with his ability to hold the ball up and make runs in behind the defense is the exact sort of striker that Mourinho likes to play with.

In this transfer window then Chelsea have fixed their two biggest problems from last season. They have added both goals and creativity and enjoyed a much better off season then their nearest rivals. Manchester City's only major signing is defensive midfielder Fernando Reges and Liverpool have been forced into selling their best player.  Chelsea's pre-season has been about as perfect as is possible. Mourinho's men are now the early favourites for the title.