By Opta Analyst | Created at 2024-10-29 21:22:15 | Updated at 2024-11-06 00:04:03
1 week ago
Despite having his critics since arriving in England, Chelsea‘s Nicolas Jackson has reached 20 Premier League goals for the London club faster than Gianluca Vialli, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Didier Drogba.
As we all know, in modern football you’re either hot or you’re not, especially when it comes to strikers.
Liverpool’s Darwin Núñez has polarised fans and pundits alike since arriving in 2022; Marcus Rashford is generally deemed to be Manchester United’s best or worst player depending on which week it is; even Erling Haaland sees his ‘all-round game’ questioned on the rare occasions he doesn’t find the net for Manchester City.
Few have divided opinion in the last year like Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson, though.
The Senegal international arrived from Villarreal in the summer of 2023 but initially struggled, along with plenty of his new teammates as Chelsea stumbled through their early days under Mauricio Pochettino. They recovered to finish sixth in the Premier League, and Jackson ended his first campaign in England with a respectable 17 goals from 44 games in all competitions.
Jackson and Chelsea have shown further improvements in recent months, and with his goal in their game against Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, the 23-year-old reached 20 for the Blues in the Premier League.
Only four players have struck 20 Premier League goals for Chelsea in fewer than Jackson’s 44 games; Diego Costa (26), teammate Cole Palmer (27), Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (33) and Mark Stein (37). Pretty impressive when you consider some of the attacking talent the club has boasted in the last 32 years.
That means Jackson has reached 20 Premier League goals for Chelsea faster than club legends including Gianluca Vialli (49), Eidur Gudjohnsen (48) and Didier Drogba (50).
An even more impressive achievement for Jackson though is that none of his have been penalties. Only Costa (29) and Hasselbaink (37) have reached 20 non-penalty goals for Chelsea in the Premier League quicker than him, with none of his strikes coming from the spot.
It did take Jackson a while to get going, but of late he has undoubtedly been one of the form attackers in the Premier League. He has been involved in 16 goals in his last 17 Premier League games for Chelsea (11 goals, 5 assists), four more than he managed in his first 27 appearances (9 goals, 3 assists).
Since his arrival in England, only Haaland (30) and Ollie Watkins (24) have scored more non-penalty goals in the Premier League than Jackson.
After last season’s scrutiny, it would be even sweeter for Jackson if he were to carry on his form and to keep silencing his critics with goals.
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