Chelsea news: John Obi Mikel jokingly backs himself to win the Golden Boot - three years after scoring his last goal

The midfielder made the claim on Twitter three years to the day after scoring his one and only goal for Chelsea in the West London derby

Mikel has set his sights high for the season... (Getty)

John Obi Mikel has jokingly backed himself to win the Golden Boot for the 2016/17 season – three years to the day after scoring his one and only league goal for Chelsea.

Although the midfielder may not be that prolific in front of goal, that hasn’t stopped him from taking to Twitter to make the tongue-in-cheek claim.

Three years on after finding the back of the net against Fulham in the West London derby, Mikel has hilariously set his sights on the Golden Boot – despite having failed to start a single league game under new Chelsea boss Antonio Conte.

He posted a video on Twitter of his only Chelsea league goal to date, which came after 185 appearances for the club.

Alongside the video, he said: "Three years ago today…my first @ChelseaFC PL goal in the West London derby.

"Now for the Golden Boot."

Despite his lack of football under Conte, Mikel has remained refreshingly upbeat it would seem.

The defensive midfielder has been at Stamford Bridge since 2006 and has made a total of 247 appearances for the London club.

With one year left on his contract at the club, he recently admitted that he was “always open to a new conversation, a negotiation [with Chelsea]”.

But the Nigerian also stated that he wouldn’t be averse to the idea of moving on from Chelsea.

“But if there’s none, the future still looks bright," he said. "When you have a year left, in January you are allowed to talk to other clubs and sign a pre-contract or have an agreement so, yes, I will talk to other clubs because you never know what is going to happen,

Regardless of where he ends up in the January transfer window, we'd be very surprised indeed if Mikel went on to win the Golden Boot.

Having said that, stranger things have happened.