When Nicolas Jackson was signed from Villarreal last season for 32 million euros, critics had a field day. Not necessarily because of the Senegalese striker who clearly has potential, but mainly due to the fact that both fans and pundits wanted a ‘proper striker‘, somebody like Victor Osimhen, but that never happened. His beginning during the last season was rocky (as expected for a young playing coming to the Premier League), but Chelsea fans have big expectations and the bar is raised high. He scored his debut goal after only three games and then went silent for another four matches before finishing the season with 14 Premier League goals in 35 appearances, which made him the second highest African goal scorer in the 2023–24 season only behind Mohamed Salah. And this season (even thou it‘s only the beginning), he is better than the Egyptian forward.Nicolas Jackson (18) has now scored more non-penalty goals in the Premier League since the start of last season than Dominic Solanke, Alexander Isak & Son Heung-min, Mohamed Salah and Kai Havertz.Is he one of the most underrated forwards? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/OFvznBeT4w— Squawka (@Squawka) September 21, 2024 A brace of goals and an assist on Saturday against West Ham saw the Senegalese claim the man-of-the-match award and he even ‘provoked‘ his countryman and former Chelsea striker Demba Ba to talk about Jackson.“Nicolas Jackson’s second goal is a masterclass on creating space. How he gets the defender out of position and gets in there is top level. Even better than the finishing itself“ he tweeted.Jackson joins Palmer as a player with the longest contractLast season, he was only two goals shy of Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka and three ahead of Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez. And according to Squawka, across all competitions, Jackson had scored more non-penalty goals since the beginning of last season (18) than Son Heung-min, Dominic Solanke, Alexander Isak Kai Havertz and even Mohamed Salah. There is only one phase of his game where all his critics are enjoying themselves – missing chances. Jackson is thrid in England in missing big chances (24), placing behind Erling Haaland (34) and Nunez (27). And the Senegalese got the contract extension recently, as the clubs executives were the only ones who believed in him from day one.’Drogba and I never talk, he is from Cote d’Ivoire and I am from Senegal’He is also not shy to speak up Recently Obi Mikel commented of Jackson‘s performance after a 2-0 loss to Manchester City.“You need a striker who knows how to hit a ball back in the back of the net and that’s what we don’t have. I know I talk so much about Jackson and sometimes I sound like I disrespect him. I don’t disrespect him. I think at Chelsea Football Club we need a top striker who can get us a goal“ he said. Jackson found the next in a 6-2 win in Wolverhampton and responded to Obi Mikel via social media: “Shut your mouth. Don’t talk s***, we are killing ourselves for Africa“.ELF CUP ROUND 3Tuesday21:45: (1.03) Chelsea (14.0) Barrow (35.0)21:45: (1.12) Man.City (8.00) Watford (16.0)21:45: (7.00) Walsall (4.30) Leicester (1.42)22:00: (9.00) Wycombe (5.30) Aston Villa (1.28)Wednesday21:45: (1.12) Arsenal (8.00) Bolton (16.0)22:00: (1.35) Liverpool (4.80) West Ham (7.50)
