Nicolas Jackson certainly caught the eye during the first game of pre-season in his debut performance for Chelsea.
Chelsea recorded an encouraging 5-0 victory against League Two side Wrexham in the early hours of Thursday morning, which seemed like a great way to kickstart the pre-season tour of the United States. It also signalled the beginning of the new era with Mauricio Pochettino as the Blues head coach.
Nicolas Jackson, who joined from Villarreal during this summer transfer window, looked extremely lively with his first-half performance before being substituted off.
The 22-year-old striker led the line superbly with some great movement and moments in possession. This included an assist for the first of Ian Maatsen’s two first-half goals.
Incidentally, the Blues added gloss to the scoreline with second-half strikes from Conor Gallagher, Christopher Nkunku and Ben Chilwell.
Yes, it was only the first game of pre-season against a fourth-tier opponent. However, we can understand why there’s an immediate buzz around Jackson’s debut.
It’s going to take time to find out if the centre-forward is good enough to lead the line in the Premier League for the upcoming season, but his display against Wrexham received a lot of positive reaction on social media.
The young attacker finished last season at Villarreal in great form, scoring nine goals in his final eight La Liga appearances before coming to England. It’s going to be interesting to see if the Senegal international can do anything similar in the Premier League.
There’s no doubt Chelsea could boast one of Europe’s fastest attacks if you play Jackson alongside the likes of Mykhailo Mudryk, Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke.
A selection of Blues supporters immediately liked Jackson after watching him for such a brief space of time against Wrexham.
The Chelsea Chronicle recently predicted that Jackson would make the starting line-up for next month’s Premier League opener against Liverpool. It certainly feels more and more likely after the way he started pre-season.
Here are some Chelsea fans on Twitter praising Jackson:
View Tweet
View Tweet
View Tweet
View Tweet
View Tweet
View Tweet
View Tweet
Video
Nicolas Jackson is ELECTRIC. I still can’t believe people were writing him off before kicking a ball for Chelsea.. pic.twitter.com/lgu5Lkel14
— ~ (@CFCdruw) July 20, 2023
