Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson turned heads on Saturday with his best game of the season, as he played a role in every single goal the Blues scored in a 3-0 demolition of Europa League hopefuls West Ham.
Jackson scored twice and assisted to boost his season totals up to four goals and two assists in the 2024/25 Premier League season, making him the most productive Chelsea player through five fixtures so far.
Anyone who watched Jackson in his second half of the season surge in LaLiga with Villarreal before joining Chelsea knows that when the Senegalese striker catches lightening in a bottle, he can be one of the best players in a league.
That’s how good Jackson looked on Saturday against West Ham, drawing high praise from even his sharpest critics in media punditry, building off the promising performances he quietly showed Chelsea fans at the end of Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure in 2023/24.
Jackson has been blasted by fans and media members alike for woeful finishing, leading many to speculate that his best position with Chelsea should be somewhere besides the 9.
Even as though criticisms contain kernels of truth, what we have all ignored about Jackson is a key principle of xG. We can weaponize the notion of finishing against Jackson and say that he is a poor forward because he underperforms as a finisher compared to his peers.
Yet we cannot ignore the other part of the equation that is, technically, bigger, because it is not limited by a cap. And that is the fact that while Jackson may not convert as many G’s from his hypothetical xG, his overall xG will be higher than his peers because his playing style creates so many overall chances.
Jackson will continue to fire and miss, but because he keeps firing and keeps creating, he’s going to score goals regardless. Remember, Jackson still scored 14 goals in his debut season despite receiving heavy critiques, and he was under the age of 23 last season.
In fact, those 24 goals were a career high, because Jackson only started 16 games for Villarreal before joining Chelsea. So, in effect, the 2023/24 season was his first season as a primary starter, and he did it at the age of 22 in the Premier League for a dysfunctional Chelsea side.
When you put it that way, Jackson’s doing pretty well for Chelsea.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.