BBC SPORT
Timo Werner is back in the Premier League and will be hoping his return goes better than the last time he was here.
The Tottenham signing, who has joined on loan from RB Leipzig until the end of the season, spent two years at Chelsea from 2020 but did not have the impact he would have hoped for as he scored just 10 goals in 56 league games.
Are Spurs taking a risk? Or was his spell at Stamford Bridge just a case of not being the right fit?
BBC Sport takes a look at what went wrong last time in England, and what the German striker could bring to Ange Postecoglou’s side.
Why did it not work out last time?
When Chelsea paid £45m to bring Werner to the Premier League it was a move that, on paper, made complete sense.
He was a young, mobile forward with an eye for goal, backed up by his impressive tally of 78 goals in 127 appearances at RB Leipzig.
But he was unable to bring such a deadly strike-rate to London.
It was not for the lack of trying. Werner would often get into good positions but struggled to convert a number of big opportunities.
It was also an all-too-familiar sight for Chelsea fans that when Werner did manage to score, it would often be ruled out for offside.
In total, he was caught offside 38 times in his 56 Premier League appearances for the Blues, while statistically he had the biggest underperformance of any attacker, scoring eight fewer goals than he was expected to.
“Timo struggled as a number nine and it was his extreme inconsistency in front of goal that ultimately led to his departure,” Ross Mooring, from Chelsea Fancast, told BBC Sport.
“He was integral in a near Champions League upset at Real Madrid in 2022 – when Chelsea were 2-1 up at the Bernabeu before Thomas Tuchel substituted him – but frequently proved lacking in finishing gilt-edged chances, which was so frustrating given his ability to get into those positions in the first place.
“Unlike many former Chelsea players who have joined Spurs in recent years, I would expect the German to receive a relatively warm welcome on his return to the Bridge. Effort was never his issue.”
PL 20/21 – 21/22GoalsxGGoals – xG (underperformance)Timo Werner1018.26-8.26Neal Maupay1622.11-6.11Bryan Mbeumo49.35-5.35Jay Rodriguez38.07-5.07Joshua King59.5-4.5Michail Antonio2024.46-4.46Sadio Mane2731.3-4.3
There were external factors at play that contributed to Werner’s struggles.
He moved to London during the Coronavirus pandemic, and said he found it difficult to settle in the city during such a time.
Werner also came down with Covid-19 and took time to recover from the virus.
How did his return to Germany go?
Werner returned to RB Leipzig in August 2022 and the move back to familiar surroundings was supposed to reignite his career.
Instead, he suffered an ankle injury which ruled him out of consideration for the World Cup in Qatar.
He recovered from that setback to finish the 2022-23 season with nine goals in 27 Bundesliga appearances, but has struggled for form this campaign and heads to Tottenham on the back of just two goals in eight league games.
The majority of those handful of appearances were also from the bench, with Werner having dropped behind Leipzig’s record…
