Better than Mohamed Salah - The underrated Chelsea star proving transfer plan right

Remember last season? It was a bit of a mad one from a Chelsea point of view for a whole lot of reasons. One of those reasons was that I was never that confident when a Blues player was through on goal.

One-on-one with the goalkeeper, in many respects, unless it was Cole Palmer, I would expect the keeper to come out on top. That was certainly the case with Nicolas Jackson.

While he scored a very respectable 17 goals in all competitions during his first season at Stamford Bridge, the opportunities he missed - and the manner of how he missed them - made me, personally, doubt him whenever he was through on goal. There was a clear rawness, a lack of composure to Jackson's game when he was in the final third.

This season, though, and particularly in recent matches, I now expect Jackson to score. When he finally got the ball after relentlessly chasing it and forcing a mistake from Leicester City's Wout Faes on Saturday afternoon, he was in a good position in the box. Not a great position - not one where you feel like he had to score - but a good position nonetheless.

He then rounded the defender with ease to set himself up for a scoring opportunity. By no means was it an easy chance, even at that point in the attack. Jackson had to either shoot with his weaker left foot or try and hit it with the outside of his boot into the far corner; the latter of those two seems the more difficult option.

So, of course, that is what he did. But he made it look so easy. A composed, cool and cheeky finish into the far corner left Mads Hermansen with no chance in the Leicester goal. His seventh Premier League goal of the season.

Only Erling Haaland (31) and Ollie Watkins (24) have scored more non-penalty goals in the Premier League since the start of last season than Jackson (21). Also, this season, no player has scored more goals (five) or been in involved in as many goals (seven) than Jackson away from home in the Premier League this term. Even the likes of Mohamed Salah, who is having a fabulous season with table-topping Liverpool, has fewer than Jackson in both of the aforementioned areas.

While Jackson had a fine season under Mauricio Pochettino, it seems under Enzo Maresca his game is improving even more. While Maresca is delighted with the 23-year-old's goal contributions this term, he is even happier with the way he is adapting to his possession-based style of football.

"For me, he is doing very well," Maresca explained after Chelsea's win at Leicester on Saturday. "I have said many times, since we started, he is working hard on the ball and off the ball. He is making an effort to understand the way we want to play.

"Sometimes we use him almost as a midfielder, dropping. Sometimes we use him attacking in behind. If you remember Brighton, or even today. It depends on the game-plan.

"We are very happy with the way Nico is playing on the ball but especially in the way he is playing off the ball - the way he is pressing. In this moment, we are very happy and we are sure he is going to get better game after game."

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