Just when Chelsea needed it most, their transfer department pulls off an absolute masterstroke - signing Barcelona winger Pedro from the clutches of divisional rivals Manchester United.

Indeed, no Premier League side has successfully retained the title since the Red Devils in 2009 and three games into the new season, the Blues appeared affected by the same curse of getting fat off their own success; losing 1-0 to Arsenal in the Community Shield, drawing 2-2 with Swansea City on the Premier League's opening weekend and hit for three at the Eithad last Sunday. Two defeats to the two of club's biggest title rivals (albeit one in a glorified friendly) and conceding a five-point gap between themselves and the table's summit, all in the space of 14 days.

Chelsea needed an injection of positivity ahead of their visit to West Brom on Sunday following two weeks of bad results and even worse press, focusing on firstly Jose Mourinho's decision to axe popular physio Eva Carneiro (easy boys) and secondly John Terry's half-time substitution against Manchester City - the first time in 177 league fixtures the Portuguese has felt obliged to haul off his skipper.

So the arrival of a three-time Champions League winner certainly puts an ameliorative spin on things as the Blues prepare to face Tony Pulis, a manager whose disciplined, organised and attritional football always causes problems for the Premier League's big dogs.

But Pedro's ability to lift the west Londoners spans far beyond a trip to the Hawthorns. In their £21million signing, Chelsea have just acquired a potential title-clincher. Here's why.

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First of all, Pedro might just be the best value-for-money signing of the summer so far. He's done it all, won it all and got all the t-shirts throughout his tenures in club and international football, lifting World Cups, European Championships, Champions League and La Liga titles, yet cost less than Liverpool's Roberto Firmino and under half the price Manchester City paid for Raheem Sterling. At this point in the summer, nobody will get a better deal for such a proven player still enjoying his footballing peak at the age of 27.

Former team-mate Alexis Sanchez has changed the landscape of the Premier League since signing for Arsenal last summer and the Spain international has the potential to do the same, blessed with a similar blend of technical quality, speed, netting prowess and industriousness.

That latter objective will particularly resonate with Chelsea; whilst many attackers in world football would struggle to adapt instantaneously to Jose Mourinho's defence-comes-first mantra, Pedro is almost tailor-made for it, as a player who has worked tirelessly for every single one of his 115 career goals. He was, after all, David Villa and Lionel Messi's workhorse in what is widely regarded as the greatest club Xi of all time - the Barca side that decimated Manchester United at Wembley in the 2011 Champions League final.

There's always been something deceptively unspectacular about Pedro but that's exactly why managers love him; he's a team player, a consummate professional and natural-born winner, who sees no shame in sacrificing his own limelight in the name of victory.

But in my opinion, Pedro's job is already half done at Chelsea without even kicking a football. His sheer presence, and the threat he poses to others in the squad, will command a far superior level of performance from the attacking options previously at Jose Mourinho's disposal - players we already know are talented enough to win the title.

Indeed, although the majority of criticism in the last two weeks has centred around the Blues' slow and ageing back four - particularly Branislav Ivanovic and Terry - Chelsea have disappointed equally going forward.

Diego Costa has managed less shots than Radamel Falcao in over ten times the amount of football (180 minutes compared to just 17 from the bench) so far this season, whilst both of Chelsea's goals against Swansea City were far more indebted to fortune than talent; Oscar's free kick somehow sneaking through a crowd of players to trickle into Lukasz Fabianski's far post and Willian's strike travelling less than a yard before cannoning off Federico Fazio's shin into an unreachable part of the net.

Meanwhile, Eden Hazard failed to make any sort of impact against Manchester City last Sunday, a game in which you'd expect the Belgium international to deliver on his reputation as the best player in the Premier League and one of the best in the world.

It is a process we've seen countless times before in the Premier League; new signings not only galvanising the squad, the supporters and the club as a whole, but also frightening those a little too comfortable back into good form. When Chelsea signed Andriy Shevchenko, Didier Drogba became a better player. When they signed Fernando Torres, he stepped it up again. And even in January this year, after Chelsea signed Juan Cuadrado for £23million from Fiorentina, Hazard's performances escalated to talismanic, unplayable levels, whilst the Duracell-charged Willian somehow found an even higher voltage.

So Pedro will not only add a new dynamic to the Chelsea starting Xi - a much-needed different kind of challenge to occupy the opposition - but also command better performances from some of the Blues' most important players, particularly Eden Hazard, Willian and Diego Costa.

That trio's combination of energy, talent and ruthlessness in front of goal was vital to the Blues' title bid last year. If Pedro's arrival can inspire or scare them (or both) to those levels once again, Chelsea have just retained the English crown and added a world-class player to their roster for the meager cost of £21million.

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