As Chelsea prepare to buy a striker for the seventh straight summer, Danny Welbeck has emerged as a surprise candidate to be that man.The 35-year-old is into the final year of his contract with Brighton & Hove Albion and, off the back of his two best-ever Premier League seasons (10 goals in 2024-25, then 13), he might offer new manager Xabi Alonso some solutions to Chelsea’s seemingly perennial No 9 problem.Welbeck is at the opposite end of the age scale to Liam Delap, the now 23-year-old Manchester City academy graduate signed from relegated Ipswich Town last summer. A young Delap offered raw potential, physical quality and respectable goals numbers. The same can be said for Marc Guiu, bought as an 18-year-old in 2024, and Nicolas Jackson, now 25, who joined the year before him.The acquisition of Welbeck would be just as far from the marquee approach that Chelsea went for with Kai Havertz (2020) and Romelu Lukaku (2021).What exactly makes the former England international so lucrative? His profile.Welbeck has truly come to life since Brighton appointed head coach Fabian Hurzeler two years ago, scoring 25 goals in 76 appearances under him, just two fewer than he scored in 112 matches for Arsene Wenger at Arsenal in the 2010s, and 21 of the 25 have been non-penalty strikes in the Premier League.“He is not only scoring goals but he’s in a brilliant shape, finding good connections between his team-mates, creating a good togetherness,” Hurzeler said of Welbeck after he netted twice in a 2-1 home win against Liverpool in March.“I think he can help every team in the world — including England,” he added, with talk ongoing at the time about Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad.In an era of ball-to-feet No 10s and withdrawn strikers, Welbeck stays high up the pitch, runs the channels and occupies defenders. He does his best work in the penalty area and makes a habit of darting in-behind to attack through balls.Here’s the left-footed Georginio Rutter slipping him in for a finish at home to Bournemouth (the match-winning goal) in February 2025.And here’s a Rutter assist in a 2-1 Premier League win at home to Newcastle in October. Welbeck keeps centre-backs Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman pinned, then runs past them before beating Nick Pope one-v-one.It’s not hard to imagine how Cole Palmer, as a left-footer off the right, could create for Welbeck as Chelsea team-mates from these positions.Welbeck’s penalty-box threat is important, too. The goalscoring success he has enjoyed in recent years — 2024-25 and 2025-26 were his first double-digit league goal hauls of a top-flight career that began in 2008 — owes a lot to clever positioning. The Mancunian likes to lurk at the back post and is clever at nudging defenders to put them off-balance.