We have been rightly honing in on the mistakes that led to Arsenal’s comeback on Saturday to throw away a 2-0 lead. These individual errors and poor defending proved costly and caused us to draw a game that should have been a huge victory for us.
We have all been speaking about these errors, which were terrible. But also, there was a chance for us to really put the game to bed by going 3-0 up before Arsenal got their first goal back. And really, this has been part of why we have yet to see sustained success this season – the way we have been so wasteful in front of goal.
Nicolas Jackson came on as a sub on Saturday and in almost his first involvement he should have scored and put Chelsea 3-0 up, which would have ended the game pretty much.
Even if Robert Sanchez decided to brain fart after that, I’d have still been confident we wouldn’t concede three goals to throw it away in less than 15 minutes left on the clock.
Former Chelsea attacker Shaun Wright-Phillips highlighted it:
“You can see whatever Mauricio Pochettino is doing at Chelsea is working, it’s just about putting the ball in the back of the net. If Nicolas Jackson scores that chance [vs Arsenal] the game is over, but he tries to go round the goalkeeper and there’s also confidence.”
’m not using this to hammer Jackson, far from it. I am using this to back up my view that we simply HAVE to sign a new and proven striker with experience in January – if we really want to challenge for the Champions League. My opinion has not changed on this throughout, and I don’t think it will.
Jackson is a developing player who for me is still learning his trade, and that’s fine. But Chelsea need a true goalscoring number 9 for the here and now as well, and Jackson has not been doing that after 9 games in.
Armando Broja I have always had concerns with because of his long spell out, and those concerns have already come to fruition with him getting injured again and suffering with fatigue/lack of match fitness already. I don’t believe his latest setback to be anything serious, but still.
Shaun Wright-Phillips continued:
“Chelsea need a no-nonsense striker. It doesn’t need to look nice, it just needs to hit the back of the net. They miss a Drogba-like player, just to put the ball in the goal.”
We need that specific type of striker who we have no doubts will come in and score goals right now, and for me that is Ivan Toney.
I still think Jackson will come good and I see his talents, without a doubt. But it’s easy to forget that he has only just turned 22 and is still a young and inexperienced player. We need to give him some time to develop more, and I do think he will get a lot better as we move on. But we also have to think about the here and the now, because financially, and not just financially, the club see Champions League football as hugely important. Remember, some of our sponsorship deals for next season depend on it.
And another thing to remember is we lose Jackson for a chunk of the season for AFCON soon.
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