On Monday night, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea were involved in a Premier League classic, but while Nicolas Jackson's hat-trick led the Blues to a famous 4-1 victory, we thought we'd take a deep dive into the Senegalese's overall performance.
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The final game of the Premier League's latest matchweek threw up an enthralling encounter between two London rivals. The Blues successfully managed to climb into the top half of the table as Mauricio Pochettino left his former club with all three points. They also put an end to Spurs' unbeaten run in the division this campaign as Jackson finally got among the goals again.
The 22-year-old's performance in particular seems like a noteworthy celebration for Chelsea fans, but on the basis of his overall showing at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, that may not exactly be the case. The Banjul-born striker scored three goals in the match, but he could have found the back of the net at least six times. A member of the Lions of Teranga, the forward got himself into plenty of fantastic positions to score before seemingly inevitably opening his account on the night in the 75th minute, with the Lilywhites already down to nine men at that point.
The pacey striker has struggled since arriving at Stamford Bridge and that trend looked like it was going to continue as early as the 10th minute of the encounter when, after being played through by Raheem Sterling, he managed to dummy two defenders in the box only to have his shot saved by Guglielmo Vicario. This has largely been the story for Jackson since signing with the two-time European champions, getting into brilliant goalscoring positions but failing to score.
According to Understat, the ex-Villarreal man currently has the third-highest xG (expected goals) in the Premier League at 7.55, only trailing the past two league Golden Boot winners in Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland. Those two, however, continuously illustrate an ability that Jackson doesn't seem to have acquired just yet and that is being clinical, with the pair currently the two highest-scoring players in the English top flight.
In Jackson's defence, he was not the only player in the Chelsea side who struggled on the night, as many of the team's attackers could've played better after the two Spurs dismissals. Some questionable decisions were made by the likes of Sterling and Conor Gallagher, but even when either Englishman played the west African through on goal, he somehow failed to score. Immediately after Destiny Udogie got sent off, the forward had a ball played to him when he was five yards from the goal but still had his effort cleared off the line.
Eventually, Jackson did break the deadlock, his goal giving the six-time league winners the lead. Even with nine men and a goal down, the north Londoners looked threatening and almost levelled matters through Eric Dier and Heung-min Son. Their high line got the better of them, though, and the three-cap Senegal international scored his second and third in added time to put the game beyond doubt.
It was far from the young star's best game in a Chelsea shirt and it seems that's a sentiment shared by his teammates Cole Palmer, who claimed that his attacking partner still needs to work harder in order for those hat-tricks to come more frequently. "It's been a difficult start for him, no hiding it, but he was brilliant tonight," the England youth international told Sky Sports alongside Jackson. "He just needs to keep his head down and work harder in training and he will get many more hat-tricks."
The interviewer double-checked in disbelief and asked: "You say work harder?"
He confirmed by saying: "Of course. You can always work harder."
Jackson will be hoping this is a turning point for him and that his perseverance can bear more goals as he did not shy away from Palmer's utterances.
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"Always need to improve, always need to work harder. We continue working," the African striker added.
"Now this is past, so we forget about it and move forward. I am very happy and it has been a difficult time for everybody in the team. We are coming back really slowly and happy to have scored three goals.
"It's my first hat-trick, so I am happy to have done it with the biggest club in England and everywhere. We were dreaming about winning the big games and the confidence within the team is coming really slowly."
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