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2 months ago
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Recruited for 37 million euros in July 2023, Nicolas Jackson arrived at Chelsea with the label of a diamond to polish. At the time, he was coming off a successful half-season with Villarreal, where he scored 12 goals and provided 4 assists in 26 La Liga games. The Blues hoped to fill the departure of Kai Havertz, transferred to Arsenal, by offering the Senegalese a starting place. His first steps in Chelsea colors during the pre-season surprised all the supporters. The Senegalese international (19 caps, 1 goal) has had a string of good performances: scoring against Newcastle United, he did it again and even delivered two assists against Brighton.
A hard African heritage to bear in the Chelsea attack
An African scorer for the Blues, it was enough for the supporters to launch comparisons between Jackson and the legend Didier Drogba. Ironically, or perhaps not, Jackson chose the number 15, the one that a certain Ivorian wore in his debut with the London club. The Blues then thought they had found their famous number 9, but the rest proved more complex. Despite a timid start in the Premier League, with solid performances against Liverpool and West Ham, he scored his first goal against Ipswich. However, the rest of the season proved difficult: he scored only one goal in his next six Premier League matches, missing numerous chances. He was even strongly criticized by the English press after a hat-trick against Tottenham. Journalist Matt O’Connor-Simpson from Goal therefore writes: “his lack of killer instinct was surprising. He missed several golden chances before finally scoring the easiest hat-trick in Premier League history. But they all count.»
Jackson alternated between good and bad performances until a poor performance during the derby against Arsenal. The undisputed Chelsea legend, Didier Drogba, even came to his aid on X, where the person concerned suffered a wave of harsh criticism: “keep your head high and never stop working hard, it will pay off in the end“. After this support, Jackson scored 4 goals and provided an assist in the following 5 matches. He finished the season with 14 goals and 6 assists in 35 Premier League matches, a rather positive result for his first full season. Although his failures have annoyed some, his statistics suggest great promise for the future. The 2024/25 season will therefore not be the same for those who excelled during the pre-season before finally experiencing a certain decline in performance. This new vintage gets off to a difficult start for Jackson, who is injured in selection with Senegal and thus misses the pre-season. However, for his first time as a starter against Wolves, he was decisive by scoring a goal and providing an assist.
Nicolas Jackson finally silences his detractors
He responds directly to a criticism from John Obi Mikel, former Chelsea midfielder, who called him “a player who runs everywhere but is not a real goalscorer”, and added that Chelsea needed to recruit a striker of the caliber from Haaland: “You need a striker who knows how to score the ball, and that’s what we don’t have at Chelsea… I think at Chelsea we need a top striker who can score goals for us , a bit like Haaland, with his 91 goals at Manchester City, it’s absolutely incredible.» Jackson responds to him on Instagram: “Shut your mouth, stop talking nonsense, we are killing ourselves for Africa.» This criticism obviously did not disturb Jackson, who had a string of good performances. He would be decisive seven times in the following five matches.
He also scored his first goal for the selection after a drought of 16 matches. “Nicolas Jackson silenced me, but not only me. Bravo to him. He does very well, mentally too, in accepting criticism and acting accordingly. Some players could have been weakened by my words, but he took them into account and did something about it. He is constantly improving, scoring goals, playing well, and his link-up play is much better. He’s absolutely incredible, and the more he continues like this, the more the team wins and he scores goals. This is exactly what we need. If, every weekend, he scores goals and asks me to shut up, I won’t have any problem with that…» said the Nigerian in his podcast. Thus, Nicolas managed to transform what seemed to be an enemy into an ally.
This season, Jackson seems determined to establish himself as a proven striker despite the ups and downs of his Blues. Thus, the 23-year-old striker even scored in the defeat against Liverpool. During his first meeting against the Reds last season, he delivered a truly good performance against Ibrahima Konaté and the robust Virgil van Dijk, but without managing to find the net. This shows that young Nicolas continues to progress, proving that he can be decisive even in big matches. With already 7 goals and 3 assists in 12 games, he is among Chelsea’s top scorers, alongside Cole Palmer. Nicolas Jackson is now ahead of Frenchman Christopher Nkunku, relegated to the bench and forced to make do with a few appearances in the Premier League, while playing matches in the Conference League. Coach Enzo Maresca did not hide and clearly explained that a hierarchy was established: “At the moment, Nicolas Jackson is our starting striker, I have no doubt about his daily work. Since the start of the season, with our way of playing, we have used Nicolas, but that does not mean that Marc (Guiu) or Christopher will not play in number 9 depending on the matches. Currently, we are very happy with Nicolas.» Underestimated at the start, Nicolas Jackson is therefore establishing himself as one of the most dangerous attackers across the Channel.
