According to the Daily Mail, Sterling underwent a medical on Sunday evening in London ahead of his sensational transfer to the Blues.
Assuming he’s passed, the finishing touches to the deal are set to be finalised in the coming days and Sterling will fly out to America to join his new squad on their pre-season tour of America.
What will Sterling bring to Chelsea?
In a word? Plenty. The England star has arguably been hugely underappreciated at stages in his Man City career and has contributed more combined goals and assists than any other play within Pep Guardiola’s reign
His attacking outputs will be of great use in a Chelsea side that’s top goalscorer (Mason Mount) was the only player to breach the double figure mark with his tally of 11.
By contrast, Sterling hasn’t produced anything less than double figures in five seasons now, with his 13 goals last campaign coming amidst a season that saw him start far fewer games and appear just 30 times in total in the Premier League.
It’s believed that Chelsea could still be in the market for a striker as Thomas Tuchel looks to continue to bolster his attacking returns, however given Sterling can either operate as an inside left-forward or more centrally across the attack, his versatility is sure to be a welcome attribute.
Could Sterling be Chelsea’s new Eden Hazard?
Now, let’s not jump to any conclusions before we’ve even seen him pull on the shirt.
Hazard was quite literally unplayable at times when in his pomp at Chelsea and it would be some feat by Sterling to match his influence.
But what about if we compared a prime Sterling to a prime Hazard? That way we can see what kind of potential the Englishman has if Chelsea can create the right conditions for him to flourish.
In order to do that, we’ve picked two standout seasons from both individuals to analyse.
With Hazard, and yes, we know he won the PFA Player of the Year award in 2014/2015, we’ve opted for his final season at Stamford Bridge (2018/2019) in which his attacking returns were the highest.
Meanwhile for Sterling, it’s another tough decision because he’s had three excellent seasons with very similar stats behind them, but we’ve opted for 2017/2018.
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