Michael Owen has said he is a "huge fan" of João Pedro and believes Manchester United should have signed the striker before he joined Chelsea.

Michael Owen has said he is a "huge fan" of João Pedro and believes Manchester United should have signed the "exceptional" striker before he joined Chelsea.

Pedro joined Chelsea from Brighton a year ago for £60 million, and the 24-year-old enjoyed an impressive debut season despite the club's disappointing campaign.

The versatile forward quickly outperformed fellow summer signing Nicolas Jackson to become Chelsea's main striker, scoring 20 goals across all competitions.

Missing out on Brazil's World Cup squad was still a blow to him. With new manager Xabi Alonso in charge, he will hope for a better start to the new season, beginning with a match against local rivals Fulham in a week.

Chelsea finished tenth last season and will have no European football this season, which gives Alonso the luxury of focusing on the league in the coming weeks and months.

Owen believes this could be hugely beneficial for Alonso's team. He has tipped Chelsea to finish second in the Premier League this season, only behind defending champions Arsenal.

When asked on the podcast The Good, The Bad & The Football who would be Arsenal's biggest challengers, Owen said: "Chelsea. Maybe this is a wild guess, but they have no European football at all, and you see how important that is year after year. It was huge for Manchester United last season."

Owen is optimistic about Chelsea under new manager Alonso (Image: The Good, The Bad & The Football)

Pedro scored 20 goals for Chelsea last season (Image: Getty)

"The manager [Xabi Alonso] has done similar things with an underdog team in Germany [Bayer Leverkusen], he will bring a lot and they've done good business."

Owen has high expectations for Chelsea's star-studded attack and believes Manchester United made a mistake by not signing Pedro earlier.

The former England, Manchester United and Liverpool striker explained: "I'm a huge fan of João Pedro, I think he's absolutely brilliant. Manchester United should have bought him four years ago when he was at Watford, to be honest."

"Manchester United haven't had a centre-forward for years, and I thought, 'João Pedro is it', I really like him."

"He, Morgan Rogers, and Cole Palmer form a three-man attack... whereas signing Danny Welbeck and Josh Maja seems rather odd."

Owen acknowledged there are still "question marks" over goalkeeper Robert Sánchez, but he feels Chelsea could "explode" in Alonso's first year and have a "big season".

He continued: "There are big question marks over the goalkeeper, I've heard that too."

"But I just think this team could explode. They don't have European football, and they have some excellent players."

"I think Chelsea will have a strong season."

Earlier this month, reports from Brazil claimed that Arsenal surprisingly made an offer for Pedro, attempting to bring the striker from West London to North London ahead of the new season.

The Gunners were reported to be willing to pay €100 million (£86 million) for Pedro, but Chelsea quickly rejected their rivals' offer.

Pedro, who is regarded as one of Chelsea's "untouchable" players, has also previously attracted strong interest from Barcelona.

The former Fluminense, Watford, and Brighton player has seven years remaining on his current contract with Chelsea.

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