- Nicolas Jackson scored the first goal in Chelsea’s 3-2 win over Newcastle.
- The Senegalese striker is gradually settling in at Stamford Bridge after a weak start
- The England team is approaching… who is the chosen wild card? everything is beginning podcast
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For the first time, Nicolas Jackson can say that he has no more yellow cards than goals in the Premier League. That was a statistic that followed Chelsea’s new striker, a stick with which he was hit for being more cautionable than bankable.
It was a quick move against Newcastle that secured Jackson his ninth goal of the season, with Chelsea unbeaten whenever the 22-year-old Senegalese player scored. Slowly but surely he is proving his worth after signing in the summer for £32million.
Leading the Chelsea line is not easy at all. Many have tried and failed, from Romelu Lukaku and Fernando Torres to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Álvaro Morata, all of them wearing the number 9 shirt that is considered cursed in the corridors of their training ground in Cobham.
Jackson had the opportunity to get that number when he arrived from Villarreal. He declined, despite having played for Senegal.
It left Chelsea one of the few Premier League clubs without a designated number 9, the others being Aston Villa, Tottenham, Newcastle and Wolves.
Nicolas Jackson scored with a bold move in the 3-2 win over Newcastle on Monday
The Senegalese international chose the number 15 shirt to emulate Didier Drogba
The Blues legend first wore the number 15 when he moved to Stamford Bridge in 2004.
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Jackson opted for the unorthodox number 15, the same number Didier Drogba wore when he first arrived at Chelsea. Comparisons with Drogba were inevitable because of those digits on his back.
Drogba scored 10 Premier League goals in 26 games in his first season, winning the title under Jose Mourinho. Jackson is now nine for 24 in a campaign in which Chelsea are 11th.
Mauricio Pochettino says he will eventually learn to radiate calm in front of goal, having spent this season asking fans for patience when dealing with this Premier League rookie.
Drogba’s are big boots to fill. Ask Jackson and he’ll tell you that he knows there’s work to be done. It would be reckless and unfair to expect such feats from Jackson so soon when this is a club used to seeing talented forwards come and go, join and smother, excite and leave.
However, Jackson’s most admirable trait is undoubtedly his ability to realize that he will make mistakes and refuse to let them hinder him.
Against Brentford, he brought himself down while trying to make passes over the box, another moment to feed the social media meme machine.
Jackson responded by burying a header and celebrating by silencing the Brentford fans who had been beating him at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Drogba then switched to number 11 and scored 164 goals in 381 in all competitions for Chelsea.
Against Newcastle, he scored after six minutes, a clever move so sneaky that even the Stamford Bridge announcer originally awarded the goal to Cole Palmer. Replays showed it was a moment worthy of Chelsea’s first Premier League goal since 2018.
He scored a second that was annulled by the assistant’s flag, as he did not hold his run long enough to overcome the offside trap. Later, his header set up Raheem Sterling for a one-on-one in which he should have picked up his fourth assist of the season.
Despite all the criticism, Jackson is showing why it would be a mistake to classify him as a failure when he is 22 years old, in his first season with Chelsea, leading the line for a club that has gone through a major change and is doing well. .