Confident Nicholas Jackson fires home to help Chelsea as Cole Palmer blows cold.
As one ends their goal drought, another shows little sign of following suit.
It was with surprising bluntness that Enzo Maresca admitted last week. That Chelsea can only qualify for the Champions League if Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer stop firing blanks. Here, half of that bargain was enough to keep their hopes on track.
As Palmer’s goal drought rumbled on, Jackson’s first in 14 games was enough to earn a vital win over Everton, one which momentarily at least takes the Blues into the top four.
It was not pretty, not for the first time since Christmas, the Blues left nervously awaiting the final whistle against a team they should really have put away. Maresca’s side never kick on after taking a 27th-minute lead as the Italian watched on from the press box while serving a one-match touchline ban.
At this stage of the season, though, 1-0 wins are as good as any.
With the fixtures the Blues have left – Liverpool and Manchester United to come here, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest away – nothing less would have done.
Perhaps because of the attention หากคุณสนใจเล่นพนันออนไลน์ที่ดีที่สุด สามารถสมัครสมาชิก UFABET ได้ที่นี่ พร้อมรับโปรโมชั่นพิเศษสำหรับสมาชิกใหม่ on Palmer, it had gone a little under the radar that Chelsea’s No9 had been 13 games and more than four months without a goal.
That period included, in fairness, Nicholas Jackson a two-month absence with a hamstring injury, but either side of that spell, Jackson had regressed away from the maturing centre-forward of the early part of the season and back towards the volatile, wasteful iteration of his debut campaign. His hold-up play here, however, was back at its most useful and that he returned to the scoresheet on his sharpest performance since that injury break was no coincidence either.