Pedro gets Rahman’s shirt

Chelsea’s newest Ghanaian signing Baba Rahman has relinquished his favourite No. 17 shirt to Spaniard Pedro after the Blues allocated jersey numbers to their latest signings.

Rahman was unveiled last week and handed the No.17 jersey, but only a few days later Chelsea confirmed that Pedro —sensationally signed from Barcelona last Thursday — will now wear the No.17 shirt while Rahman has been handed the No.6 jersey.

Rahman, who will be hoping to put Cesar Azpilicueta under pressure for the left-back position for the rest of the season, takes a shirt that is familiar with Chelsea fans, having been previously worn by Ricardo Carvalho and the legendary Marcel Desailly.

However, Chelsea’s defensive struggles in their last three Premier League games suggests Jose Mourinho will re-inforce his backline by deploying Baba Rahman down the left-hand side — dislodging Branislav Ivanovic in the process — and perhaps move Azpilicueta to his more favoured right-back position.

Rahman had the fourth-highest Performance Score of any defender at Augsburg last season in the Bundesliga.

Not only is the No. 17 shirt one of Pedro’s favourite numbers, it was the one he used in his most spectacular spell at the Catalan club.During the glorious Pep Guardiola years, Pedro wore the No.17 and scored key goal after key goal, winning title after title with that number on his back. When David Villa left the club, Pedro decided to inherit the number 7 shirt and was never the same.