The mass upheaval will not stop at Chelsea but amongst all the bodies leaving for Saudi Arabia, Manchester, north London and beyond is one arrival in the form of Villarreal forward Nicolas Jackson.
They’ve paid slightly over his €35 million release clause to allow instalments, although new head coach Mauricio Pochettino will still believe he’s secured a bargain.
So can the 22-year-old continue his strong end to 2022/23 and what impact will he have in FPL?
We’ll attempt to answer those questions below.
THE HISTORY
Born in The Gambia but raised in Senegal, Jackson made his international debut at the 2022 World Cup. It was a cameo appearance against the Netherlands.
| Season | Team | Division | Starts (subs) | Goals | Assists |
| 2022/23 | Villarreal | La Liga | 16 (10) | 12 | 4 |
| 2021/22 | Villarreal | La Liga | 0 (8) | 0 | 1 |
| 2021/22 | Villarreal B | Primera Division RFEF | 23 (2) | 5 | 7 |
| 2020/21 | Mirandes (loan) | Segunda Division | 7 (9) | 1 | 1 |
Still early in his career, a lot of faith has been placed in him based on relatively few matches. Bournemouth had already seen enough by January and he was on the verge of joining until the medical detected a hamstring problem.
Once back from injury, he bagged nine goals and two assists in Villarreal’s final eight league matches, including three braces versus Celta Vigo, Cadiz and Athletic Club. It’s not ideal having only experienced one top-flight season by the age of 22 but Chelsea legend Didier Drogba had none until he was 24. We’ve seen so often that there are different ways to reach the top.
Jackson’s way was to join the Spanish side as an 18-year-old, being versatile across the forward line in earlier stints with CD Mirandes and Villarreal B.
PLAYING STYLE
However, looking at WhoScored, the emergence of fertile finishing and strong dribbling abilities have caused Jackson to settle as a centre-forward. He’s even been starting ahead of the more established Gerard Moreno and his 50 La Liga goals from three previous seasons.
Not only did 6ft 1in Jackson have the division’s best goals per shot rate (0.29) of 2022/23 but he ranked third for his rate of attempts on target (56.1%) whilst also having the second-highest goal-creating actions (0.79) per 90 behind Antoine Griezmann. He’s superb at driving forward with the ball.
A total of 36 of his 41 shots came inside the penalty area, adding a fox-in-the-box quality that neither Kai Havertz nor Joao Felix quite possessed.
A weakness seems to be his ability in the air, with only two headed chances all season. His aerial duel win percentage of just over 30% was very poor, too – compare that to Havertz’s 57.2%, one of the best figures among FPL forwards.
WHERE NICOLAS JACKSON FITS IN AT CHELSEA
The Blues definitely need such prolificness, as no side wasted a higher rate of big chances (26.8%) last season, with a paltry 7.9% goal conversion rate and the league’s second-biggest expected goals (xG) underachievement of -10.77. There were just 38 goals throughout.
Due to finishing 12th, there’ll be no European football for Chelsea. It removes the temptation to rotate in league matches but also means Pochettino will have fewer opportunities to appease a large squad.
Havertz is off to Arsenal, Joao Felix’s loan wasn’t renewed and the versatile newcomer Christopher Nkunku has spoken about preferring to play behind a centre-forward, paving the way for Jackson to lead Pochettino’s favoured 4-2-3-1 system with narrow attackers and width provided by full-backs.
| Shots per 90 | Shot accuracy | Goal conversion | Shots in box | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicolas Jackson (Villarreal) | 2.30 | 56.1% | 29.3% | 87.8% |
| Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig) | 3.51 | 40.5% | 21.6% | 75.7% |
| Kai Havertz | 2.48 | 45.1% | 9.9% | 88.7% |
| Joao Felix | 4.35 | 34.8% | 8.7% | 58.7% |
| Raheem Sterling | 1.99 | 38.1% | 14.3% | 83.3% |
| Mykhailo Mudryk | 1.86 | 35.7% | 0.0% | 50.0% |
IS NICOLAS JACKSON WORTH BUYING IN FPL?
The big questions are how many players will Chelsea purchase and how will Pochettino use pre-season to build a side in his vision. Although Jackson has just had a breakout season at Villarreal, is it too soon for him to be leading the frontline of an elite Premier League team?
On the other hand, Pochettino liked to put faith in youth at Spurs and may not opt for an easing-in period.
The fixtures look good beyond the opening weekend, with Chelsea ranking top of our Season Ticker between Gameweeks 2 and 8. Back-to-back hostings of Luton Town and Nottingham Forest seem ripe for investment, so early clues on Jackson’s squad status would be very useful.
Last season, Chelsea’s FPL forwards were handed starting prices of £9.0m and £8.0m, before Joao Felix later began at £7.5m. On the back of such a dismal year, it’s reasonable to suggest that Chelsea prices will drop a level, with Jackson also having an unknown reputation factored in. A value of £6.5m-£7.5m could make this prolific finisher worth buying for this fixture run, providing the Blues don’t further add to their options up top – and that seems like a tall order.
