Diego Costa Would Have 'Comfortably' Won Chelsea the Title – Ray Wilkins

Former Chelsea caretaker boss Ray Wilkins says Diego Costa would have won the club the Premier League title had Jose Mourinho had the Spanish striker at his disposal this season.

The Blues finished four points adrift of champions Manchester City as attacking trio Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto'o and Demba Ba all failed to reach double figures in terms of league goals.

Mourinho constantly bemoaned the lack of killer instinct among his available forwards and Wilkins says such was the tight nature of the title race, with Costa leading the line Chelsea would have secured the championship.

"Costa's a little bit in the mould of [Alvaro] Negredo. Negredo just before Christmas was absolutely outstanding," he told talkSPORT.

"I think this young man is in a very similar mould to him. He likes to get stuck in, he's physical and I think that's what Chelsea have lacked this season. They've lacked an abundance of goals from the forward players.

"If Chelsea had a 20-goal man they would have won the title comfortably but that wasn't the case and hopefully they can address that situation."

Chelsea's problems in attack were accentuated by Romelu Lukaku having been sent on a season-long loan to Everton, where the Belgian international netted 15 goals in the top flight – more than any player at Stamford Bridge.

Though Chelsea continue to be heavily linked with a move for Costa, the Atletico Madrid attacker, Lukaku has proven himself during loan spells at West Bromwich Albion and Everton with two goal-laden campaigns.

And Wilkins said: "He has to come back to Chelsea in my opinion, at 20 he's the closest thing you'll see to Didier Drogba at such a young age.

"Obviously Lukaku sits at Everton having scored another 15 goals in the Premier League so that for Roberto Martinez is a massive, massive problem as West Brom found it."

Lukaku's future is still to be decided but his agent Christope Henrotay told the Evening Standard last week: "For the moment, Romelu belongs to Chelsea.

"He has two years left on his contract. It's going to depend on Chelsea. After that, we'll see together what the best options are if Chelsea decide to let him go.

"That they want to bring in a big-name striker has been well-documented. But Chelsea need lots of great strikers. And if there are too many, they'll choose to allow Romelu to leave."