KIERAN GILL: Nicolas Jackson turned down Chelsea’s No9 shirt to put on Didier Drogba’s outdated quantity… and the Blues’ £32m man is on monitor to match the Ivorian’s tally in his debut season at Stamford Bridge TERMAN WEBSITE

For the primary time, Nicolas Jackson can say he doesn’t have extra Premier League yellows than objectives. That was a statistic which adopted Chelsea’s latest striker, a keep on with which he was crushed for being extra bookable than bankable.

It was a fast-thinking flick towards Newcastle which secured Jackson his ninth strike of the season, with Chelsea unbeaten every time the 22-year-old from Senegal has netted. Slowly however absolutely, he’s exhibiting his value after signing in the summertime for £32million.

Main the road for Chelsea is not at all simple. Sufficient have tried and failed, from Romelu Lukaku and Fernando Torres to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alvaro Morata, all of whom wore the No 9 shirt which is taken into account cursed within the corridors of their Cobham coaching floor.

Jackson had the possibility to take that quantity when he arrived from Villarreal. He declined, regardless of having sported it for Senegal. 

It left Chelsea as one in every of a handful of Premier League golf equipment with out a designated No 9, the others being Aston Villa, Tottenham, Newcastle and Wolves.

Nicolas Jackson scored with an audacious flick within the 3-2 win over Newcastle on Monday

The Senegal worldwide picked the No15 shirt to emulate Didier Drogba

The Blues legend first wore No15 when he moved to Stamford Bridge in 2004

Jackson opted for the unorthodox No 15 as a substitute – the identical quantity worn by Didier Drogba when he first arrived at Chelsea. Comparisons to Drogba have been inevitable due to these digits on his again.

Drogba scored 10 Premier League objectives from 26 video games in his first season, profitable the title underneath Jose Mourinho. Jackson is now on 9 from 24 in a marketing campaign that has Chelsea sitting eleventh.

Mauricio Pochettino says with time, he’ll discover ways to exude calmness in entrance of aim, having spent this season pleading for endurance from supporters relating to this Premier League beginner.

Drogba’s are massive boots to fill. Ask Jackson and he himself will inform you he is aware of there may be work to do. It could be unwise and unfair to count on such exploits from Jackson so quickly when this can be a membership used to seeing gifted strikers come and go, be part of and choke, excite and exit.

But Jackson’s most admirable trait is arguably his capability to grasp he’ll make errors and refuse to allow them to hinder him.

Towards Brentford, he tackled himself whereas making an attempt to carry out step-overs within the field – one other second to feed the social media meme machine. 

Jackson responded by burying a bullet header, celebrating by shushing the Brentford supporters who had been giving him stick on the Gtech Neighborhood Stadium.

Drogba then switched to No11 as he scored 164 objectives in 381 in all competitions for Chelsea

Towards Newcastle, he scored after six minutes, a deft flick so disguised that even the Stamford Bridge announcer initially awarded the aim to Cole Palmer. Replays confirmed it was a second worthy of Chelsea’s earliest Premier League aim since 2018.

He scored a second which was disallowed by the assistant’s flag, having not held his run sufficient to beat the offside lure. Later, his flicked header arrange Raheem Sterling for a one-on-one from which he ought to have secured his fourth help of the season.

For all of the criticism, Jackson is exhibiting why it could be unsuitable to classify him as a dud when he’s 22, in his first marketing campaign with Chelsea, main the road for a membership that has gone by means of a serious change, and doing simply tremendous.