Michy Batshuayi looked on the verge of being one of the flops of the season at Christmastime after his £33m transfer had from Marseille had amounted to just a couple of sub appearances in the league and a few starts in the cups in rotated teams.
This was still pretty much the case all the way up until the start of May, when the striker’s goal against West Brom ended up being the goal that handed Chelsea the league title. This earned the Belgian a start in the next game against Watford, where he scored again, and he netted for a third consecutive game in the season closer against Sunderland to end up with some pretty impressive goal stats.
Whether that will be enough to keep him around next season isn’t clear, but it’s done a huge amount for his reputation. It could all have been so different if Fernando Llorente had made the January switch from Swansea that Antonio Conte was keen on. Michy would never have had the opportunities he did in these last few weeks.
Speaking about the transfer on Football365, Llorente explained that while Conte was keen, Swansea and Paul Clement just wouldn’t let their star man go – and for good reason as it turned out, with the Spanish striker netting 15 goals to keep the Swans in the Premier League for another season.
