If Chelsea want to move up to the next level, they have to find a more reliable striker who will lead the line effectively on a regular basis.
Nicolas Jackson has had plenty of opportunities to prove he should be their main man, but when Chelsea needed him to find the target the most on Sunday, the forward found his range in the wrong way by successfully aiming a forearm into opponent Sven Botman’s face and getting sent off.
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Losing 2-0 at Newcastle United is bad enough, but Jackson will now serve an automatic three-game ban and miss Chelsea’s final two Premier League games of the season against Manchester United and Nottingham Forest. Failing to win both of those matches will surely mean Champions League football, via a top-five finish this time, will elude the club for a third successive season.
Jackson is not the sole reason why Chelsea may miss out again on a return to the European elite, but this latest incident puts the 23-year-old Senegal international’s lack of a positive contribution over the second half of this season under more negative scrutiny.
Yes, there was an enforced two-month absence with a hamstring injury between February and April but one Premier League goal in his past 15 top-flight appearances, stretching back to mid-December, is a desperately disappointing return.
Jackson continues to be a player of promise rather than the finished article.
The worry for Chelsea is that this was also his status when he arrived from Spanish side Villarreal for just over €35million (£29.6m; $39.4m at current exchange rates) in summer 2023, having started just 16 La Liga games for them over the past two seasons. He has not kicked on as hoped.
Just look at the numbers.
Jackson scored 14 league goals in 35 appearances in his debut year and will now finish this one with just 10 from 30. Teams who win Premier League titles often have a player who gets them 24 goals and more in one season, not two.
Jackson in happier times, celebrating his second goal against Djurgarden in the UEFA Conference League semi-final first leg (Michael Campanella/Getty Images)
Then there is the disciplinary record.
Last season, Jackson picked up 10 bookings from 44 appearances in all competitions. He has been shown a yellow card on eight occasions in 32 games this time around, but has now added a straight red to the tally. Somebody who keeps making the same mistakes is not an individual upon whom you can depend.
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Maresca could barely contain his anger over the Botman incident, instantly turning away in dismay on the touchline and uttering some choice words under his breath. This was before referee John Brooks was told by VAR Darren England to review it on the pitchside monitor and subsequently upgraded his initial yellow. When Jackson walked off the pitch and down the tunnel, Chelsea’s head coach appeared deliberately to ignore him.
His post-match press conference suggested that he was still in no mood for forgiveness.
“I did not speak (to him),” Maresca said. “It is not the moment. Probably in the next day or so, I am going to speak with Nico.”
When pressed by The Athletic if Jackson needs to improve his temperament to become an elite player, the Italian replied: “No doubt, 100 per cent. Especially at this stage of the season, where we had three more (league) games, now two more games, you need to avoid these kinds of things, because you need all of your squad available for the next game.
“It happened, now he will be out for the rest of the season and hopefully he can learn for the future.”
Jackson cut a lonely figure trudging from the pitch on Sunday (George Wood/Getty Images)
Those with good memories may recall a more upbeat appraisal of Jackson from this writer back in November.
In fairness, at the time Jackson did look like he was making the most of Chelsea’s decision not to acquire a big-name forward last summer to compete with him for a place in the team, as he had started with seven goals in 12 league appearances — one of them in a 2-1 home win against Newcastle.
Having begun the season so well few, including the decision-makers at Chelsea, could have foreseen he would go on to find the net just three more times over the rest of it. He was a player whose performances demanded that the No 9 role be his, but he has allowed a once-firm grasp on the position to slip.
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Chelsea also hoped Christopher Nkunku (three Premier League goals in 27 appearances this season, 18 of them from the bench) would have made a much bigger impact, and it was unfortunate that promising teenager Marc Guiu (six goals in as many UEFA Conference League games) and then Jackson were both injured against West Ham on February 3, hours before the winter transfer window closed later that evening.
But the fact the club want to put this right in the summer is also a bit of an admission that they’ve got it wrong.
It is no secret that Chelsea are looking to buy a striker. This has been in the planning for months with several names considered, including Benjamin Sesko, Liam Delap and Hugo Ekitike. Who they sign, or perhaps significantly who they do not secure, will depend on whether they are in next season’s Champions League or not. They face competition for these targets and inevitably will be at a disadvantage in negotiations if they are not involved in Europe’s premier club tournament.
This is not to say that Jackson suddenly has no role at Chelsea.
They will play in a European competition of some kind next season, and that means plenty of games and a lot of squad rotation. Having a strong bench is also key — there was no direct replacement for him among the substitutes on Sunday — and there is also still the possibility of him combining with the new recruit.
Chelsea extended Jackson’s contract by two more years until 2033 last September because they have a lot of faith in him. He has provided flashes of his quality to suggest that their belief is not misplaced.
But the reality of football at the highest level is that you are judged on what you do when important matters are decided.
Unfortunately for Jackson, he has gone missing, and will now be absent for what league action remains in 2024-25 — when it matters most of all.
(Top photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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