NICOLAS JACKSON (£3.9m) has copped plenty of stick this season.
Earlier in the campaign, the Chelsea forward was statistically among the most wasteful finishers in the Premier League and he didn’t do himself any favours when he and Noni Madueke (£3.1m) tried to take a penalty away from Cole Palmer (£5.4m) a few weeks backs.
However, while some of the criticism has been justified, the Senegal international has unquestionably improved as the season has progressed.
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In fact, after his brace against West Ham on Sunday, Jackson now boasts a tally of 13 league goals in 2023/24.
To put that into perspective, Stamford Bridge legend Didier Drogba only scored more league goals in two of his nine seasons with the Blues.
Obviously that statistic lacks context and fails to tell even a fraction of the story of the Ivorian’s Chelsea career but it illustrates that Jackson is certainly a player who was written off too soon by many.
An overall return of 16 goals in all competitions is perfectly respectable for a 22-year-old in his first year on English shores.
There are clearly aspects of his game that need addressing but he’s shown Mauricio Pochettino what he’s capable of since he returned from the Africa Cup of Nations.
Dream Team managers have also started to take note of his positive attributes.
Jackson has registered eight goals and five assists in 18 outings since the start of Gameweek 22 for a return of 120 points.
That works out at 9.2 points per Gameweek since the start of February.
At the time of writing, only Erling Haaland (£6.9m) has scored more points than Jackson in Gameweek 34 – the latter banked 19 against the Hammers.
And he looks to be a potentially smart option for Gameweek 35 too with Chelsea among the group of six clubs with two fixtures to fulfil.
Pochettino’s side are due to face Nottingham Forest and Brighton which is arguably the most-favourable double header of the lot next Gameweek.
More broadly, only Manchester City and Arsenal have taken more points than Chelsea from their last ten league games.
Rewind a few months and the idea of Jackson as a viable Dream Team striker would have sounded ridiculous but that’s the truth of it as the campaign draws to a close.
It will be interesting to see how he and Chelsea start 2024/25.
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